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A   SECOND 
MANUAL   OF   COMPOSITION 


•The. 


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SECOND  MANUAL  OF  COMPOSITION 


DESIGNED   FOR   USE   IN   SECONDARY 
SCHOOLS 


BY 


EDWIN   HEEBEET   LEWIS,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  English  in  the  Lewis  Institute,  Chicago 

Author  of  "A  First  Manual  of  Composition,"  "An  Introduction 

TO  the  Study  of  Literature,"  etc. 


THE   MACMILLAK   COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1900 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1900, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

EDDCATIOB  LIBBt 


V 


J.  S.  Cashing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Ma88.  U.S.A. 


^97 


PREFACE 


Although  no  prefatory  defence  of  a  text- 
book can  in  itself  have  much  weight  when 
the  book  is  constantly  being  taken  from  the 
teacher's  desk  and  submitted  to  the  searching 
tests  of  the  class  room,  yet  it  is  only  a  matter 
of  courtesy  that  the  author  should  try  to  state 
his  point  of  view.  The  view  taken  in  this 
book  regards  the  aim  of  Composition  as  two- 
fold :  first,  to  help  the  student  by  methods 
both  constructive  and  critical  to  master  a 
simple,  correct,  and  closely  reasoned  style ; 
and  secondly,  to  exercise  his  imagination,  his 
sense  of  beauty,  and  his  sense  of  conduct. 
The  book  does  what  it  can  to  help  in  accom- 
plishing these  ends.  It  can  be  used  for  a  one 
year  course  or  a  two  year  course,  by  second, 
third,  or  fourth  year  pupils  in  a  secondary 
school.  It  does  not  assume  that  the  student 
has  already  approached  composition  systemati- 
cally, although  it  recognizes  the  necessity  of 
giving    different    illustrative    material    and    a 


ivi577Cr53 


VI  PREFACE 

different  statement  of  theory  from  what  could 
satisfactorily  be  given  to  the  boy  of  thirteen 
or  fourteen. 

The  book  consists  of  two  parts,  the  first 
treating  composition  in  general,  the  second 
composition  in  its  particular  modes  or  species. 
Study  of  the  kinds  of  composition  is  usually 
deferred  until  college  ;  but  for  securing  in- 
ventiveness and  enthusiastic  interest,  nothing 
succeeds  in  secondary  work  like  a  sympa- 
thetic presentation  of  narration,  description, 
and  exposition.  So  far  as  his  experience  of 
life  will  permit,  the  high  school  student  has 
every  right  to  know  these  subjects  alive,  not 
as  mere  corpora  vilia  illustrating  the  sentence, 
the  paragraph,  and  the  choice  of  words.  We 
do  not  tell  a  young  child  to  write  a  series  of 
periodic  sentences,  or  to  analyze  a  theme-sub- 
ject into  its  paragraph  topics,  for  he  cannot; 
we  tell  him  to  write  a  story,  or  describe  a  play- 
mate, or  explain  a  game.  It  therefore  passes 
comprehension  why,  in  so  many  cases,  the  stu- 
dent is  allowed  to  spend  the  four  most  critical 
years  of  his  life  with  practically  no  rhetorical 
instruction  except  what  concerns  the  standards 
of  good  usage,  diction,  and  structure.  Such 
study  accomplishes   little  more   than    training 


PBEFACE  Vli 

in  orderliness.  Constructive  it  may  be,  in 
the  sense  that  the  student  learns  to  build  sen- 
tences and  paragraphs  with  regard  to  unity 
and  coherence,  but  creative  it  is  not  in  any 
sense.  Excessive,  exclusive  study  of  standards 
and  structure  often  adds  to  that  crude  intel- 
lectualization,  that  separation  of  symbol  and 
thought,  that  worship  of  method  apart  from 
matter,  that  neglect  of  the  sense-elements,  the 
interests,  the  ideals  of  life,  which  is  the  greatest 
danger  of  education  now  and  always. 

But  criticism  is  ready  with  its  answer,  and 
there  is  truth  in  the  answer.  "If  you  make 
the  larger  interests  the  main  concern,  you  will 
perhaps  produce  a  better  member  of  society 
than  merely  formal  study  could  have  produced, 
but  you  will  produce  an  ignoramus.  You  for- 
get that  the  technique  of  writing  is  extremely 
difficult,  even  in  its  elements.  For  students 
who  come  to  it  late,  as  students  so  often  do 
come,  English  must  be  a  mechanical  study 
before  it  is  a  liberal  study.  Parents  expect 
their  children  to  be  partly  cured  of  their  bad 
habits  of  expression  before  being  developed 
symmetrically. 

"  Besides,"  proceeds  the  critic,  "  who  would 
underrate  the  importance  of  the  study  of  struc- 


Vlll  PBEFACE 

ture  from  an  intellectual  and  analytic  point  of 
view  ?  It  is  no  Herod  of  young  geniuses.  No 
student,  however  correct,  fluent,  or  imagina- 
tive, should  be  excused  from  a  kind  of  work 
which  makes  him  the  master  rather  than  the 
slave  of  his  fancy.  Your  really  great  artists 
are  also  great  analysts,  and  no  art-product, 
unless  subjected  in  the  making  to  that  heat 
of  analysis  which  burns  so  fiercely  in  a  great 
creative  mind,  will  long  resist  the  pressure  of 
heavy  time. 

"  Of  course,"  he  goes  on,  "  the  analytic  and 
the  imaginative  powers  should  grow  together, 
otherwise  there  will  come  a  time  when  fancy 
dies,  and  the  mind  botanizes  on  the  grave  of 
its  child.  Such  a  state  of  things  is  sad  enough, 
but  for  the  purposes  of  life  it  is  better  than  the 
other  extreme.  Many  a  fluent,  imaginative, 
but  untrained  writer  is  hopelessly  shut  out 
from  the  practical  literary  life,  because  he 
cannot  condense  a  story,  has  no  sense  of  struc- 
ture, cannot  grasp  the  meaning  of  unity.  A 
year  of  painful  class-room  work  would  not 
have  crushed  his  powers ;  it  would  have  saved 
them." 

We  reply  to  the  critic  :  There  can  be  no 
quarrel   between   us ;    we  admit   all   that   you 


PBEFACE  IX 

say.  It  is  a  good  half  of  the  whole  truth. 
The  only  remedies  that  we  can  see  for  the  in- 
complete condition  of  things  are,  either  more 
time  for  English  courses,  so  that  the  technique 
of  writing  may  be  mastered,  yet  not  at  the 
expense  of  the  student's  larger  life,  or  a  closer 
fusing  of  creative  work  with  analytic,  so  that 
technical  terms  will  always  name  concrete 
inventions  of  the  student  himself. 

Such  thoughts  as  these  have  dictated  the 
plan  of  the  present  book.  It  consists  of  two 
parts,  one  of  which  discusses  composition  in 
general,  the  other  the  kinds  of  composition. 
The  study  of  the  structure  of  the  long  com- 
position is  placed  before  the  study  of  any  part 
of  the  theme,  and  before  the  study  of  narra- 
tion, description,  and  exposition.  This  is  done 
because  too  much  must  not  be  taken  for  granted, 
even  in  the  case  of  students  who  have  finished 
an  elementary  work,i  and  because  by  the  end 
of  the  first  high  school  year  students  are  ma- 
ture enough,  even  though  previously  untrained 
in  the  art  of  structure,  to  face  the  question 
of  handling  their  thought  in  some  quantity. 
Every  effort  has  bee  a  made  to  render  this 
study   of    structure    as    practical    as    possible. 

1  E.g.  A  First  Manual  of  Composition. 


X  PREFACE 

However  analytic  the  principles  involved,  they 
are  stated  one  at  a  time,  illustrated  by  three 
kinds  of  examples  —  narrative,  descriptive,  ex- 
pository —  and  applied  in  oral  and  written  exer- 
cises. The  development  and  the  unity  of  the 
outline  are  considered  with  regard  to  the  laws 
of  time,  space,  generalization,  cause  and  effect, 
and  contrast.  The  same  laws  are  then  applied 
to  the  development  and  the  unity  of  the  para- 
graph and  of  the  sentence.  The  use  of  the 
three  kinds  of  illustration  —  narrative,  de- 
scriptive, expository  —  is  kept  up  throughout 
all  these  chapters,  even  that  on  the  sentence, 
for  such  words  as  unify  denote  different  things 
in  different  kinds  of  writing,  and  denote  little 
except  when  the  concrete  example  is  at  hand. 
So  long  as  the  meaning  of  every  principle  is 
grasped  in  the  concrete,  there  is  no  danger  that 
sharp  analysis  will  grow  mechanical. 

Another  device  is  introduced  which,  as  ex- 
perience has  shown,  will  materially  strengthen 
the  student's  grasp  of  theory.  It  provides 
for  applying  every  principle  to  the  student's 
own  work,  on  a  scale  small  enough  to  permit 
thoroughness.  Teachers  know  that  many  pupils 
who  do  intelligently  the  work  of  some  admira- 
ble series  of  exercises  still  "go  to  pieces"  in 


PREFACE  XI 

their  own  writing.  In  Part  First  of  this  book 
the  construction  and  progressive  revision  of 
five  long  themes  is  suggested.  As  soon  as 
each  new  principle  has  been  illustrated,  and 
has  been  applied  in  the  exercises,  the  student 
attempts  to  embody  it  in  his  ^ye  themes,  which 
have  been  built  up  according  to  the  laws  of 
structure  out  of  very  different  kinds  of  mate- 
rial. This  is  not  creative  work,  but  certainly 
it  can  be  made  constructive  work  of  a  most 
concrete  sort.^  If  it  is  thoroughly  done,  the 
principles  that  apply  to  writing  in  general  will 
really  be  understood,  and  may  thenceforth  be 
permitted  to  become  less  consciously  operative. 
Such  revision  will  not  be  necessary  in  the  work 
of  Part  Second. 

On  the  completion  of  Part  First,  the  five 
long  themes,  now  perfected  even  in  diction  to 
the  utmost  of  the  student's  critical  ability,  are 
laid  aside,  and  attention  is  turned  to  the  kinds 
of  composition.  The  pupil  now  writes  more 
freely,  on  a  variety  of  topics,  with  much  regard 
to  the  sense  elements.  The  kind  of  topics  and 
•  their  grouping  are  shown  in  the  table  of  con- 

1  Why  this  expenditure  of  critical  energy  may  be  con- 
structive and  pleasurable  rather  than  destructive  and  tedious 
I  have  tried  to  explain  to  the  student  on  pages  33-35. 


xu  PREFACE 

tents.  With  certain  warnings  and  restrictions, 
models  are  freely  set.  It  is  poor  pedagogy  to 
fear  or  to  despise  the  instinct  of  imitation,  in 
which  creative  work  always  begins.  Models 
should  be  brief  but  numerous,  illustrating  one 
principle  at  a  time.  The  more  interesting  they 
are  ;  the  deeper  they  appeal  to  the  student's 
hunger  for  ideals ;  the  farther  they  stand  from 
the  status  of  corpora  vilia  —  why,  the  more 
delightful  and  effective  they  will  be  in  their 
influence.  It  is  suggested  that  the  themes 
produced  in  the  course  of  studying  Part  Sec- 
ond should  be  criticized  far  less  with  regard 
to  structure  than  with  regard  to  the  effects 
produced.  Is  the  theme  interesting  ?  Does  it 
stir  the  sense  of  pity,  or  indignation,  or  humor, 
at  which  it  was  aimed?  Are  the  things  de- 
scribed well  chosen,  beautiful  in  themselves, 
vividly  presented?  Does  the  exposition  really 
explain?  Does  the  argument  really  convince 
or  persuade  ?  There  is  no  principle  of  litera- 
ture which  may  not  be  brought  into  play  in 
these  themes,  providing  always  that  the  stu- 
dent is  kept  to  the  range  of  his  own  expe- 
rience. This  provision  regarded,  time  will 
show  that  the  college  instructor,  so  far  from 
regretting  that  the  candidate  for  entrance  at- 


PREFACE  xiii 

tempted  work  in  the  types  of  composition,  will 
be  grateful  that  an  elementary  sense  of  literary 
effect  has  been  born  in  that  student.  It  will 
be  elementary  enough  at  best. 

The  author  recommends  that  the  entire  book 
be  studied  in  the  order  of  presentation.  It 
will  provide  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  reci- 
tations, although  the  "  Exercises  "  are  only  one 
hundred  and  fifty  in  number.  When  time  does 
not  permit,  or  when  an  instructor,  approving  the 
plan  in  general,  finds  the  proportion  of  parts 
unadapted  to  the  needs  of  his  class,  various 
omissions  can  easily  be  made.  The  five  long 
themes  can  be  omitted,  or  they  can  be  retained 
and  made  the  only  written  exercises  of  Part 
First.  It  may  be  that  some  teachers  will  give 
Part  First  as  a  whole,  while  omitting  Part 
Second  from  want  of  time.  Even  a  fourth 
possibility  remains,  that  of  reading  Part  First 
through  aloud,  but  of  writing  only  the  exer- 
cises of  Part  Second.  It  is  indeed  strongly 
urged  that  every  page  used  shall  be  read  aloud 
in  class.  The  American  boy  is  not  a  good 
reader  in  any  sense  of  the  word ;  his  news- 
paper habits  and  the  overcrowded  condition  of 
schools   conspire   to  make  his  infrequent  oral 


XIV  PREFACE 

reading  stumbling  and  inexact  to  an  almost 
incredible  degree. 

The  book  contains  three  appendixes,  treating 
the  more  troublesome  questions,  (A)  of  gram- 
mar, (B)  of  punctuation,  (C)  of  spelling.  Ap- 
pendix B  is  supplemented  by  the  work  of 
Chapters  II  and  III  (Part  First),  which  ex- 
plain the  colon  and  the  semicolon  in  connection 
with  the  subjects  of  unity  and  emphasis  in  sen- 
tence and  paragraph.  Appendix  C  is  supple- 
mented by  a  list  of  sixteen  hundred  words 
often  misspelled.  * 

As  usual,  the  author's  best  thanks  for  assist- 
ance or  criticism  are  due  to  his  colleagues. 
Director  George  N.  Carman,  Miss  Charlotte 
W.  Underwood,  Mr.  Philemon  B.  Kohlsaat, 
and  Mr.  Lewis  Gustafson.  Circumstances  have 
unhappily  deprived  him,  however,  of  the  privi- 
lege of  submitting  proof-sheets  to  these  friends. 

Chicago,  September,  1900. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

SECTION  PAGE 

1.  The  Value  of  Composition 1 

2.  Preparation  of  Manuscript 4 

3.  Spelling 5 

4.  Review  Questions     . 8 

5.  The  Writer  and  his  Public 11 

6.  Definition  of  Terms 16 


PAET  I 

COMPOSITION  IN  GENERAL 
CHAPTER   I 

PLANNING    THE    COMPOSITION 

1.  Growth  of  the  Outline      .         .         .         .         .        .18 

2.  Unity  of  Thought  in  the  Outline      .        i         .         .39 

3.  Order  of  Topics  in  the  Outline         ...        .         .51 

4.  Scale  of  Treatment 69 

5.  Proportion  of  Parts  in  the  Theme    .         .         .         .81 

CHAPTER   II 

THE    PARAGRAPH    AS    A    PART    AND    AS    A    WHOLE 

1.  Unity  of  Thought  in  the  Paragraph  .         .        .       98 

2.  Paragraph  Length 121 


XVI  CONTENTS 


3.  Paragraph  vs.  Long  Sentence 

4.  Proportion  of  Parts  in  the  Paragraph     . 

5.  Junction  of  Paragraphs 

6.  Order  of  Sentences  in  the  Paragraph 

7.  Unity  and  Variety  of  Form  in  the  Paragraph 


140 
144 
146 
165 
163 


CHAPTER   III 

THE    SENTENCE    AS    A    PART   AND   AS   A    WHOLE 

1.  Unity  of  Thought  in  the  Sentence  .         .         .         .167 

2.  Junction  of  Sentences 198 

3.  Order  of  Words  in  the  Sentence     .         .         .         .201 

4.  Unity  of  Form  in  the  Sentence      ....  222 
6.  Ellipsis 229 

6.  Wordiness c  239 

7.  Reference 247 

CHAPTER  IV 

WORDS 

1.  The  English  "Vocabulary 252 

2.  Local  Usage 266 

3.  Vulgar  Usage 269 

4.  Colloquial  Usage 279 

5.  Technical  Usage 286 

6.  Literary  Usage 287 

7.  Neoterisms 290 

8.  Tone .294 

9.  Precision         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .297 

10.  "  Logical  Conformity  " 307 

11.  Idiom     .         . 309 

12.  Repetition      .         .         • 316 

13-  Acquisition  of  Vocabulary 319 

14.  Values 345 

15.  Imagery  and  Tropes 359 


CONTENTS  XVU 

PAET   II 

THE  KINDS   OF  COMPOSITION 
CHAPTER   I 

NARRATION 
SECTION  PAGE 

1.  Historical  Narrative 372 

A.  Personal  narrative  of 

(a)  short  period,  detail,  past,  suspense       .  372 

(b)  short  period  in  detail,  historical  present  377 

(c)  short  period,  personal  sensations  .         .  380 
((?)  longer  period,  selected  events        .         .  383 
(e)  chosen  events  of  childhood    .         .         .  385 
(/)  short  period,  dialogue,  past,  with  sus- 
pense    388 

B.  Impersonal  narrative  of 

(a)  incident  observed 391 

(b)  athletic  contest,  as  observed  .        .  396 

(c)  journey  or  adventure,  as  reported  .  401 

(d)  events  in  a  life 403 

(e)  anecdote,  with  dialogue         .         .        .  407 

2.  Generalized  Narrative 409 

3.  Fictitious  Narrative 411 

A.  Improbable 

(a)  adventure,  personal  or  impersonal 
(6)  fairy  tale 

B.  Probable 

(a)  adventure,  personal  or  impersonal 
(6)  realistic  story,  with  dialogue 

CHAPTER   II 

DESCRIPTION 

1.   Individual  Description 412 

A.     By  impression  and  details       ....     414 


XVlll 


CONTENTS 


B. 


C. 


2. 


PAGE 

(a)  dark  room 414 

(6)  light  room     .         .         .         .         .         .  416 

(c)  church  exterior 419 

(d)  dwelling-house,  exterior        .         .         .  424 

(e)  town  from  a  distance  ....  430 
(/)  town,  with  ground  plan  .  .  .  432 
{g)  landscape,  from  fixed  point  of  view  .  435 
(Ji)  landscape,  successive  points  of  view  .  437 
(J)  wood  interior  .  .  " .  .  .  440 
(j)  shore  and  water 444 

(Jc)  landscape,  with  sounds  and  odors         .  450 

(Z)  mood  of  nature 452 

(m)  face,  in  half  light 457 

By  comparison  and  contrast 

(a)  persons 458 

By  effects 

(a)  object,  scene,  or  person         .        .        .  462 

Generalized  Description 464 

Types  of 

(a)  plant 465 

(6)  house,  person,  or  animal       .         .        .  468 


CHAPTEE   III 


EXPOSITION 

Exposition  as  related  to  Narration  and  Description  474 

(a)  character,  by  direct  statement     .         .        .  475 

(6)  character,  by  description  of  person     .         .  476 

(c)  character,  by  description  of  environment    .  480 

(d)  character,  by  effects  on  persons  .         .        .  482 

(e)  character,  by  narrative  of  deeds  .        .        .  486 
(/)  character,  by  contrasted  narration  or  de- 
scription             .        .  488 

(gr)  mechanical  principle,  by  narration  or  de- 
scription      400 


CONTENTS  XIX 

SECTION  PAGE 

Qi)  scientific  principle,  by  narration  or  descrip- 
tion   493 

(i)  social  institution,  hy  narration  or  descrip- 
tion     495 

2.  Generalized  Exposition 498 

3.  Classification 601 

4.  Definition 605 


CHAPTER   IV 

ARGUMENTATION 

1.  The  Student's  Attitude  toward  Argumentation      .  612 

2.  The  Relation  of  Exposition  to  Argumentation       .  519 

3.  The  Proposition 521 

4.  Proofs 522 

5.  The  Special  Issue 622 

6.  The  Brief .         .624 

7.  Persuasion 627 

8.  Diction  in  Argumentation 628 

9.  Subjects  for  "True  Debate''          ....  629 
10.    Subjects  for  "  Expository  Debate  "        .        .        .  630 

Appendix  A :  Grammar 633 

Appendix  B :  Punctuation 640 

Appendix  C ;    Spelling ;    Rules   and  List  of   Sixteen 

Hundred  Words  often  misspelled  ....  648 

Index  of  Rhetorical  Subjects 667 

Index  of  Authors  quoted  and  Persons  mentioned         .  676 


INTRODUCTION 

§  1.  The  Value  of  Composition. — There  are 
reasons  enough  why  an  American  should  master 
his  mother  tongue.  To  begin  with,  it  is  a  part 
of  the  American  spirit  to  finish  a  task  once 
undertaken.  To  learn  the  letters  of  a  lan- 
guage, and  then  to  recoil  before  the  task  of 
learning  how  a  few  pages  may  be  written 
clearly  and  correctly,  is  hardly  courageous. 
To  be  beaten  by  the  difficulties  of  one's  mother 
tongue  is  but  a  poor  prophecy  of  success  in 
other  enterprises.  Another  reason  is  that  the 
commercial  value  of  good  composition  daily 
becomes  greater;  no  business  can  be  carried 
on  without  men  who  are  able  to  write  fluently, 
exactly,  persuasively.  A  third  reason  is  the 
profit  and  delight  which  a  respectable  prose 
style  gives  to  men  and  women  in  society.  I 
would  willingly  dwell  on  the  delight  of  writ- 
ing well,  but  it  is  safer  to  dwell  on  the  profit. 
Every  girl  who  hopes  to  inherit  and  hold  social 
position,  or  to  win  it,  or  to  take  part  in  the 

B  1 


2  INTRODUCTION 

philanthropic  work  in  which  women  are  so 
often  leaders,  has  constant  need  of  good  Eng- 
lish and  of  facility  in  its  use. 

A  fourth  reason,  the  weightiest  of  all,  is 
that  writing  almost  constitutes  an  education 
in  itself.  We  must  not  forget  that  language 
is  what  chiefly  distinguishes  men  from  beasts, 
and  that  real  command  of  language,  if  these 
words  be  rightly  interpreted,  is  what  most 
distinguishes  the  educated  man  from  the 
uneducated.  A  great  student  of  human  na- 
ture, Jean  Paul  Richter,  declared  that  fifteen 
years  of  writing  will  develop  a  man  more 
than  thirty  years  of  reading.  The  pity  is 
that  this  fact  cannot  be  comprehended  by 
students  of  the  age  at  which  learning  to  write 
is  easiest.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
boy  who  does  not  learn  something  of  the  art 
of  writing  English  before  nineteen  will  never 
learn  the  art  thoroughly.  Yet  many  a  youth 
looks  upon  composition  as  a  task  to  be  got 
rid  of  as  lightly  as  possible.  "  I  shall  never 
be  an  author,"  says  he,  "  therefore  why  should 
I  learn  to  write?"  He  fails  to  see  that 
writing  is  thinking,  and  in  a  certain  sense  the 
only  exact  thinking.  We  may  have  vague 
notions  of  a  subject,  but  they  do  not  become 


INTRODUCTION  3 

thoughts,  convictions  —  principles  to  live  by 
and,  if  necessary,  die  for  —  Until  they  are 
wrought  into  written  sentences ;  into  written 
sentences,  because  spoken  sentences  have  no 
such  exactness  as  written.  Think  of  the  bat- 
tles waged  in  this  country  between  the  years 
1861  and  1865.  Over  what  were  they  fought? 
Over  the  meaning  of  certain  sentences  —  even 
certain  words.  This  country  had  dreamed  for 
half  a  century  that  it  knew  the  sense  of  the 
terms  ''  free  and  equal " ;  but  it  cost  a  million 
of  men  and  ten  thousand  millions  of  money 
to  define  these  terms.  ^ 

Most  students  who  use  this  book  have  already 
had  some  drill  in  composition.  Some  of  the 
topics  which  they  have  studied,  many  indeed, 
will  be  taken  up  anew  in  this  book,  from  a 
somewhat  more  advanced  point  of  view  than 
that  of  their  earlier  work.  It  will  therefore 
not  be  necessary  to  make  uny  extended 
preliminary  review  of  past  work.  Two  or 
three  matters,  however,  need  to  be  spoken 
of. 

1  Since  writing  these  words  I  have  come  upon  a  similar 
thought,  but  brilliantly  expressed,  in  Dr.  Holmes's  Professor^ 
at  the  Breakfast  Table.  If  Dr.  Holmes  were  alive  now,  he 
would  say  that  England  has  lately  found  much  difficulty  in 
trying  to  *'  spell  "  the  word  "  suzerain." 


4  INTRODUCTION 

§  2.  Preparation  of  Manuscript. — One  is,  the 
proper  preparation  of  manuscript.  Now,  man- 
uscript is  a  name  for  smooth  paper,  usually 
white,  on  which  certain  marks  or  arbitrary 
signs  are  neatly  written.  A  piece  of  paper 
rumpled,  or  disfigured  by  the  marks  of  dirty 
fingers,  or  covered  with  signs  that  must  un- 
duly be  studied  to  discover  their  meaning,  is 
not  a  manuscript  except  by  courtesy.  Manu- 
script should  be  kept  smooth,  and  when  folded 
should  be  folded  with  the  precision  of  machin- 
ery. No  person  should  touch  white  paper 
before  he  has  washed  his  hands.  No  student 
should  write  with  a  clumsily  sharpened  pencil, 
or  a  poor  pencil,  or  a  poor  pen.  None  should 
ever  be  without  the  best  of  rubber  erasers 
and  the  sharpest  of  pen-knives.  The  imple- 
ments named  are  as  much  a  part  of  the  busi- 
ness of  writing  as  a  carpenter's  tools  are  a 
part  of  carpentry.  There  is  little  hope  for 
the  workman  whose  tools  are  lost  or  dull  ; 
and  the  same  is  true  of  the  slovenly  student. 
As  to  ink  and  to  handwriting,  one  thing 
should  never  be  forgotten.  It  is  highly  dis- 
courteous to  offer  to  an  instructor  —  a  person 
whose  livelihood  depends  on  his  eyesight  — 
a  paper  that  is  hard  to  read.      Pale  ink  can- 


INTRODUCTION  6 

not  be  read  without  damage  to  the  eyes. 
Neither  can  n's  that  resemble  t^'s,  m's  that 
resemble  w'^^  «'s  that  resemble  (?'s,  and  r's 
that  resemble  s's.  Neither  can  words  that  are 
placed  too  close  together.  Njcither  can  words 
left  gaping  in  the  middle  when  they  should 
be  written  solid,  as  sun  beam  for  sunbeam^ 
gal  lant  for  gallant.  Neither  can  a  word  into 
which  a  long  tail  is  whisked  by  some  letter 
standing  in  the  line  above.  Neatness  and 
legibility  are  absolute  requisites.  No  teacher 
should  consent  to  read  a  paper  that  is  lacking 
in  these  regards.  Nor  would  any  student  evei 
offer  untidy  and  illegible  work,  no  matter  hoA^ 
clever  in  substance,  if  he  dreamed  how  harrt 
it  is  for  a  teacher  to  be  just  to  whatever  of; 
merit  a  badly  written  paper  may  contain.  A 
well  prepared  manuscript  always  promises 
a  good  composition,  and  many  a  piece  of  poor 
stuff  has  passed  muster  merely  because  its 
chiregraphy  was  a  relief  to  weary  eyes. 

§  3.  Spelling.  —  Closely  related  to  the  matter 
of  neatness  is  that  of  spelling.  A  hundred  years 
ago  orthography  was  not  considered  an  essen- 
tial; but  common  schooling  was  a  trifling  mat- 
ter then  as  compared  with  now.     In  those  times 


6  INTBOJDUCTION 

careful  men  and  neat  women  spelled  in  ways 
which  would  shame  a  ten-year-old  child  to-day. 
We  may  long  for  those  days,  but  we  can  hardly 
bring  them  back.  Lexicons  are  everywhere. 
For  ten  cents  one  can  buy  a  pocket  dictionary 
containing  as  many  thousand  words.  To-day 
a  written  misspelled  word  betrays  culpable 
carelessness.  It  may  possibly  be  true  that 
some  people  cannot  learn  to  spell ;  but  that  is 
no  excuse  for  such  persons  when,  with  dictionary 
accessible,  they  leave  a  misspelled  word  in 
manuscript.  To  remember  letters  and  syllables 
is  an  easier  task  for  some  than  for  others.  No 
task  in  the  world  is  equally  easy  to  all  men. 
But  no  person  is  capable  of  getting  an  educa- 
tion if  he  is  incapable  of  learning  to  spell 
respectably.  The  simple  fact  is  that  the  bad 
spellers  are  mostly  those  persons  who  have 
never  assumed  any  responsibility  in  the  matter 
of  their  own  training.  They  are  the  careless, 
the  irresponsible.  Let  us  not  shun  th^  dis- 
agreeable fact;  most  boys  who  spell  badly  are 
they  who  neglect  the  heels  of  their  boots,  fail 
to  put  tools  back  into  place,  mutilate  books, 
scribble  on  desks,  demolish  test-tubes,  and  in 
general  are  expensive  children  to  own;  most 
girls  who  spell  badly  are  they  whose  bureaus 


INTRODUCTION  7 

will  not  bear  inspection,  and  who  make  pins  do 
the  work  of  buttons.  Bad  spelling  in  man- 
uscript is  the  same  sort  of  disgrace  as  soiled 
linen  in  dress. 

As  for  a  real  mastery  of  spelling,  such  as  frees 
one  from  slavery  to  the  dictionary,  it  is  not 
beyond  most  students.  It  is  to  be  acquired 
through  care  in  writing,  care  in  pronunciation, 
knowledge  of  derivations,  and  mastery  of  a 
few  rules.  The  rules  that  are  most  frequently 
of  use  are  to  be  found  in  Appendix  C  of  this 
book,  where  also  will  be  found  a  list  of  all  the 
common  words  which  a  high-school  student  is 
likely  to  misspell.  The  rules  should  be  per- 
fectly committed  to  memory,  and  whenever  the 
pupil  finds  himself  in  search  of  a  spelling,  he 
should  at  once  review  the  rule  involved.  He 
should  not  expect  the  instructor  to  take  the 
precious  time  of  the  class  hour  to  drill  him  in 
spelling.  That  time  is  sacred  to  the  interests 
of  the  class,  who  then  wish  the  teacher  to  do  for 
them  things  which  they  cannot  do  for  them- 
selves. And,  since  a  class  is  a  social  institu- 
tion, the  student  who  consumes  more  than  his 
share  of  the  instructor's  time,  for  whatever 
purpose,  is  stealing  from  his  classmates. 


8  INTRODUCTION 

§  4.  Review  Questions.  —  The  following  list 
of  questions  forms  a  kind  of  review  catecliism, 
which  will  do  much  for  the  student  who  con- 
scientiously asks  himself  the  questions  concern- 
ing each  page  after  he  has  written  it.  In  case 
of  doubt  as  to  grammar  or  punctuation,  the 
student  should  consult  one  of  the  first  two 
Appendixes,  which  are  designed  for  this  pur- 
pose. Appendix  A  treats  the  more  trouble- 
some points  of  grammar.  Appendix  B  those  of 
punctuation.  If  the  required  aid  is  not  found, 
reference  should  be  made  to  one's  old  copy 
of  the  text-book  on  grammar  or  elementary 
composition. 

QUESTIONS! 

1.  Is  every  sentence  grammatically  complete  ? 

2.  Does  every  verb  agree  with  its  subject? 

3.  Is  there  a  wrong  nominative  or  objective? 

4.  Do  Jie^  him,  they,  them,  this,  these,  it,  who,  which,  its, 
his,  her,  their,  refer  correctly  ? 

5.  Does  every  participle  agree  with  the  right  person  or 
thing? 

6.  Are  shall  and  will  used  correctly? 

7.  Is  every  adverbial  modifier  in  its  right  place  ? 

1  The  Macmillan  Company  is  able  to  furnish  in  tablet 
form  a  "  Final  Draft  Paper,"  each  page  of  which  bears  this 
list  of  questions  in  the  margin.  By  this  device  the  student 
can  review  and  revise  with  ease.  The  teacher,  by  merely 
checking  the  questions  neglected  by  the  student,  can  quickly 
dispose  of  the  heavy  task  of  correcting  minor  errors. 


INTBOBUCTION  9 

8.  Does  any  comma  attempt  the  work  of  a  period  ? 

9.  Is  the  conjunction  so  preceded  (as  is  right)  by 
period  or  semicolon  ? 

10.  Does  any  comma  interfere  between  subject  and 
verb,  or  verb  and  object  ? 

11.  Does  any  comma  interfere  before  a  relative  clause 
which  is  necessary  to  identify  the  antecedent  ? 

12.  Is  any  comma  lacking  which  was  needed  to  show 
the  sense  ? 

13.  Is  any  period,  dash,  interrogation  or  exclamation 
point  omitted  ? 

14.  Is  any  apostrophe  omitted  or  misplaced? 

15.  Are  italics  (underscoring)  omitted  or  misused? 

16.  Are  hyphens,  capitals,  or  quotation  marks  omitted 
or  misused? 

17.  Is  every  letter  of  the  writing  unmistakable? 

18.  Is  any  ^  un dotted  or  t  uncrossed  ? 

19.  Does  any  loop  interfere  with  the  line  below  ? 

20.  Is  there  too  little  space  anywhere  between  words  ? 

21.  Is  there  too  much  space  anywhere  between  letters  ? 

22.  Is  any  word  or  letter  carelessly  omitted  ? 

23.  Is  any  w^ord  misspelled  ? 

24.  Does  anything  need  knife  erasure  ? 

25.  Is  any  statement  inexact,  false,  meaningless,   or 
absurd  ? 

26.  Has  any  sentence  too  many  thoughts  or  clauses? 

27.  Should  any  statement  be  subordinated  by  as,  since, 
because,  although,  or  by  a  participle  ? 

28.  Is   there   any   error   or   omission   in   the    use   of 
conjunctions  ? 

29.  Is   there   any   error   or    omission   in   the   use   of 
prepositions  ? 

30.  Has  any  sentence  a  sudden  change  of  voice  or 
mood? 

31.  Is  there  on  the  page  an  awkward  change  of  tense  ? 


10  INTRODUCTION 

32.  Is  there  tautology  or  pleonasm  ? 

33.  Is  every  word  used  with  precision  ? 

34.  Do  the  sentences  begin  and  end  emphatically? 

35.  Are  the  sentences  intelligently  varied  in  form  ? 

36.  Are  there  unidiomatic  or  clumsy  expressions  ? 

37.  Are  there  violations  of  good  taste,  as  slang,  bom- 
bast, or  mixed  metaphor  ? 

38.  Are  there  violations  of  euphony  ? 

39.  Is  the  diction  dull  and  commonplace  ? 

40.  Is  due  credit  given  for  obligations  ? 

The  minor  matters  we  have  been  considering 
are  important,  but  they  are  far  from  constitut- 
ing the  craft  of  writing,  or  even  its  chief  part. 
To  be  irreproachable  in  spelling,  punctuation, 
and  grammatical  construction,  is  like  being  irre- 
proachable in  dress  or  in  manners.  But  if  one 
were  to  be  no  more  than  irreproachably  neat, 
he  could  not  win  in  the  struggle  of  life.  Dr. 
Holmes  long  ago  pointed  out  however  that 
dandified  officers  whose  blood  is  up  make  the 
best  fighters  in  the  world ;  and  the  careful 
student  makes  the  best  writer  when  his  blood 
is  up.  In  composition,  as  in  war,  the  really 
great  thing  is  to  know  the  situation  one  is  in, 
and  to  prove  one's  self  master  of  it.  The  situ- 
ations in  life  which  require  skill  in  composition 
may  nearly  all  be  classified  under  four  heads. 
There  is  need  either  of  narrating  certain  events, 


INTRODUCTION  11 

or  of  describing  certain  things,  or  of  explaining 
certain  principles,  or  of  persuading  people  to 
certain  actions.  There  is  a  best  way  of  doing 
each  of  these  things,  an  effective  as  opposed  to 
an  ineffective  way.  One  main  object  of  this 
book  is  to  offer  hints  for  learning  the  effective 
way.  Since  however  there  are  principles  which 
apply  to  all  four  situations  alike,  these  wdll  be 
considered  in  the  first  part  of  the  book,  and  the 
particular  principles  of  each  kind  of  composi- 
tion will  be  considered  in  the  second  part. 

§5.  The  Writer  and  his  Public. — English 
composition  is  the  art  of  collecting  and  arrang- 
ing one's  thoughts  and  feelings  concerning  a 
given  subject,  and  of  communicating  them  to 
others  by  English  words.  This  definition 
assumes  that  one  has  something  to  communi- 
cate. Everyone  has  thoughts  and  feelings,  and 
is  daily  trying  to  communicate  them.  Composi- 
tion need  imply  no  more  than  trying  to  do  by 
written  words  something  one  is  constantly  doing 
by  oral  words. 

It  should  not  mean  an  effort  to  communicate 
thoughts  and  feelings  that  are  not  one's  own, 
but  were  extracted,  under  a  sense  of  duty, 
from  the  encyclopedia.     We  hear  a  great  deal 


12  INTRODUCTION 

to  the  effect  that  boys  and  girls  have  very  little 
to  say  which  is  worth  saying ;  and  every  youth 
who  thinks  himself  a  shining  genius  may  well 
give  heed  to  this  doctrine,  for  the  chances  are 
that  what  he  thinks  the  light  of  his  own  genius 
is  but  a  sickly  reflection  from  his  latest  favor- 
ite author.  But  there  is  a  very  great  and  much 
neglected  truth  which  far  outweighs  the  truth 
of  this  doctrine.  Every  boy,  every  girl,  is 
unlike  every  other  boy  or  girl ;  not  in  those 
lower  faculties  w^herein  all  men  resemble  each 
other,  but  in  the  higher  faculties  which  permit 
each  of  us  to  see  in  the  world  a  phase  of  beauty 
or  truth  seen  by  no  one  else.  Every  student 
has  gifts  which,  developed,  will  make  his  com- 
positions superior  in  some  direction,  and  inter- 
esting to  his  classmates.  He  should  not  think 
of  his  powers  too  highly ;  should  not  imagine 
that  an  eye  for  color  is  as  great  a  gift  as 
insight  into  social  problems,  or  that  the  art  of 
saying  much  in  few  words  is  the  sure  sign  of 
a  philosopher.  But  let  a  class  once  see  that 
A's  taste  in  colors  is  superior,  and  that  B  stows 
away  on  one  page  thoughts  that  another  can- 
not express  on  ten,  and  they  will  listen  with 
interest  to  A  and  B,  and  try  to  profit  by  their 
example. 


INTBOBUCTION  13 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  this  that  A 
should  write  only  about  colors,  and  that  B 
should  write  only  summaries  of  long  articles. 
Whatever  subject  they  touch,  A  and  B  will 
differ  in  their  treatment  from  each  other  and 
all  others,  just  because  of  their  peculiar  gifts. 
And  of  course  A's  and  B's  interests  are  daily 
widening,  since  they  are  the  interests  of  two 
healthy  minds.  A  and  B  will  not  be  too  fussy 
about  their  choice  of  subjects,  for  fear  of  miss- 
ing much  that  makes  the  world  beautiful  and 
human  life  noble. 

The  writer  developing  his  own  thoughts  — 
that  is  one  half  the  art.  The  writer  consider- 
ing the  means  of  communicating  them  —  that 
is  the  other  half.  The  writer  finds  himself 
obliged  to  study  his  public,  and  in  the  case 
of  students  this  means  studying  a  class.  He 
must  ask  himself  constantly,  "  Will  the  class  see 
this  as  I  do  ?  will  they  feel  this  as  I  have  felt 

it?"     He  should  know  the  nature  of  the  class, 

• 
their  likes  and  dislikes.     And  he  must  know 

his  instruments  of  expression.  For  one  may 
be  so  sure  of  his  own  thought  as  to  forget  the 
treacherous  nature  of  words.  Like  messen- 
gers, some  are  trustworthy,  and  deliver  ex- 
actly what  they  were  told  to   say ;    some   are 


14  INTB  OB  VCTION 

slothful,  delivering  less  than  their  message ; 
and  yet  others  are  overzealous,  and  will  say 
more  in  a  minute  than  their  masters  can  stand 
to  in  a  month. 

You  will  admit  that  it  would  be  very  hard 
for  a  text-book  to  give  instruction  in  the  na- 
ture of  the  particular  class  of  which  you  are 
now  a  member.  The  first  systematic  writer 
on  composition  was  a  very  great  man,  a  philos- 
opher, who  took  all  human  knowledge  for  his 
province ;  and  Aristotle  did  indeed  attempt  to 
set  forth,  in  the  second  of  his  three  books,  the 
nature  of  different  audiences.  He  warned 
writers  that  young  men  differ  from  middle- 
aged  men,  and  these  from  their  elders.  He 
spoke  of  the  feelings  of  men  —  their  anger, 
their  scorn,  their  good-will  —  and  tried  to 
show  how  each  of  these  feelings  might  be 
excited  by  an  orator.  Modern  writers  on 
rhetoric  do  not  attempt  to  follow  Aristotle  into 
systematic  study  of  these  matters.  The  study 
of  emotions  has  become  a  separate  science,  to 
which  rhetoric  can  refer  but  indirectly.  And 
as  for  the  individual  members  of  a  class, 
the  task  of  studying  them  is  hereby  cheerfully 
resigned  to  themselves.  Doubtless  there  are 
types  enough  :  the  quick,  the  slow,  the  exact, 


INTRODUCTION  15 

the  inexact,  the  talkative,  the  reticent,  the 
ambitious,  the  modest,  the  bold,  the  timid, 
and  possibly  the  pretentious  and  the  unpre- 
tentious. These  phases  of  character  you  may 
properly  keep  in  mind,  but  in  good  earnest  you 
may  be  advised  not  to  make  too  much  of  them. 
This  manual  offers  only  one  definite  piece  of 
advice  on  the  subject :  Write  to  the  better 
natures  of  your  comrades,  out  of  your  own 
better  nature. 

The  task  of  the  text-book  rapidly  narrows 
itself  to  a  study  of  the  instruments  of  expres- 
sion. These,  in  their  last  analysis,  are  words. 
We  however  shall  take  them  up,  not  in  the 
order  of  the  last  analysis,  but  of  the  first. 
We  shall  begin  with  the  germinal  thought 
which  forms  the  topic  of  a  composition,  and 
speak  of  it  from  the  two  points  of  view  — 
the  writer's  and  the  reader's.  We  shall  do 
the  same  with  the  units  of  expression  in  the 
order  of  their  development  —  the  main  divi- 
sion, the  paragraph,  the  sentence,  the  word. 
Then,  as  was  stated  in  the  preceding  section, 
we  shall  consider  the  kinds  of  composition  — 
narration,  etc. — from  the  same  two  points 
of  view. 


16  INTBOBUCTION 

§6.  Definition  of  Terms. — At  the  start  it 
may  be  well  to  define  a  few  terms  in  the  sense 
which  they  will  bear  in  this  book.  A  theme 
will  usually  mean  a  connected  original  composi- 
tion, though  it  may  be  used  a  few  times  in 
the  sense  of  theme-suhject,  A  written  exercise 
will  sometimes  call  for  no  original  composition, 
and  for  detached  rather  than  connected 
sentences.  Clearness  will  mean  the  quality  of 
style  which,  resulting  from  sound  thinking, 
appeals  to  the  reader's  intellect  and  makes  him 
understand  the  writer's  meaning.  Force  will 
mean  the  quality  of  style  that  impresses  the 
reader  with  a  sense  of  tlie  importance  of  a  state- 
ment, or  sets  up  in  his  heart  an  emotion  which 
the  writer  intended  to  transmit.  Umphasis  is 
like  force,  but  as  a  term  is  hardly  so  broad  ;  it 
refers  to  the  impressiveness  of  a  particular 
statement,  while  force  may  exist  throughout  a 
whole  composition,  or  in  the  suggestions  of  a 
single  word.  Coherence  will  mean  logical  order 
and  connection  ;  it  is  the  quality  which  per- 
mits the  reader  to  pass  smoothly  from  one 
thought  to  another.  Good  usage  is  the  standard 
set,  in  the  choice  and  arrangement  of  words,  by 
the  practice  of  the  best  writers  of  our  own 
nation    and    time.       Colloquial    usage    is    the 


INTRODUCTION  17 

standard  of  ordinary  conversation  among  edu- 
cated persons,  while  vulgar  usage  is  the  practice 
of  the  uneducated.  Colloquial  usage  is  some- 
times admissible  in  themes  ;  vulgar  usage  never. 


PART   I 

COMPOSITION  IN  GENERAL 


CHAPTER   I 

PLANNING   THE   COMPOSITION 

§  1.  Growth  of  the  Outline.  —  By  our  defini- 
tion, composition  is  the  art,  first,  of  collecting 
and  arranging  thoughts  in  order  to  communi- 
cate them.  The  very  term  composition  means 
placing  together.  It  is  this  task  of  collecting 
and  arranging  thoughts  which  gives  the  most 
trouble.  Thoughts  often  refuse  to  be  collected ; 
and  we  say  that  our  minds  are  muddled.  But 
the  very  students  who  say  they  have  muddled 
minds  and  no  ideas  (I  would  not  hear  their 
enemies  say  so)  are  often  really  troubled  with 
too  many.  Their  trouble  lies  in  getting  their 
thoughts  into  orderly  shape. 

The  human  brain  is  always  putting  thoughts 
18 


GROWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  19 

together  in  some  order  ;  it  performs  this  task 
every  moment  of  its  waking  hours.  We  do  not 
call  the  process  composition,  but  we  do  call  it 
by  a  similar  name,  that  of  Association.  There 
can  be  no  thought  without  association  of  ideas. 

There  are  various  laws  of  association.  How 
far  it  is  profitable  to  study  them  here  is  a  ques- 
tion. We  cannot  add  greatly  to  our  powers  of 
invention  by  knowing  just  how  the  mind  works. 
We  cannot  stop  to  analyze  our  processes  when 
we  are  writing ;  we  must  think  steadily  of  our 
subject.  So  far  as  help  in  invention  is  con- 
cerned, this  manual  relies  chiefly  upon  the  sug- 
gestions that  will  be  given  in  Part  Second  in 
the  shape  of  actual  models  and  problems.  But 
a  good  deal  of  technical  study  is  needed  on 
composition  in  general,  and  we  may  begin 
it  with  examining  a  few  principles  of  mental 
action,  and  building  up  the  outlines  of  perhaps 
five  themes  by  the  use  of  them. 

The  subject  itself  of  a  composition  is  always 
an  association  of  thoughts.  In  the  title,  '^  Ciesar 
compared  with  Napoleon,"  two  men  are  associ- 
ated by  their  likeness  or  difference.  In  the 
title,  "The  Events  of  a  Summer  Week,"  events 
are  associated  by  their  occurrence  in  point  of 
time.     "  The  Houses  of  a  Mountain  Village  " 


20  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

associates  objects  that  were  associated  in  space. 
"  Why  People  tell  Fibs  "  associates  persons  with 
reference  to  an  underlying  principle,  which  the 
theme  is  expected  to  set  forth.  A  narration 
primarily  represents  an  association  of  events  in 
time.  A  description  primarily  represents  an 
association  of  objects  in  space.  An  exposition 
sets  forth  an  association  of  facts  in  such  a  way 
that  a  general  principle,  often  a  causal  principle, 
is  drawn  from  them. 

The  associative  principles,  then,  by  which 
compositions  are  consciously  or  unconsciously 
built  up,  are  five  :  association  by  likeness  or 
difference  ;  association  in  time  ;  association  in 
space  ;  association  of  facts  and  generalization  ; 
association  of  cause  and  effect.  We  must  look 
at  these  rather  abstract  principles  one  by  one. 
In  so  doing  we  shall  call  them  principles  of 
development. 

Association  by  likeness  or  difference  often 
suggests  an  interesting  theme  subject.  Plu- 
tarch's Lives  of  Ilhistinoiis  Men  owes  its  existence 
to  this  principle  ;  the  book  is  a  series  of  compo- 
sitions, each  comparing  a  distinguished  Greek 
with  a  distinguished  Roman.  Our  grandfathers 
found  the  same  sort  of  subject  suggestive. 
They  wrote  themes  that  contrasted  Napoleon 


GROWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  21 

and  Csesar,  or  Napoleon  and  Washington.  If 
you  take  any  two  objects  and  think  about  them 
in  this  way,  you  will  be  astonished  at  the 
number  of  likenesses  and  differences  that  sug- 
gest themselves  till  the  subject  blossoms  like  a 
double  rose-tree.  Conundrums  and  puns  are 
awful  examples  of  what  can  be  discovered,  in 
the  way  of  points  of  contact,  between  things 
apparently  not  to  be  compared. 

The  power  of  seeing  important  resemblances 
and  differences  is  perhaps  the  greatest  intellec- 
tual gift  that  heaven  bestows.  In  a  sense,  every 
step  of  human  progress  springs  from  this  power. 
We  owe  lightning  rods  and  probably  electric 
lights  to  the  fact  that  Benjamin  Franklin  saw 
twelve  resemblances  between  the  electrical  fluid 
and  lightning.  1  Newton  observed  that  an 
apple  falls  from  the  tree  to  the  earth  instead  of 
falling  away  from  the  earth  ;  it  occurred  to  him 
that  the  moon  was  perhaps  like  the  apple  in  its 
earthward  tendency,  and  he  inferred  the  law  of 
gravitation.  Observation,  comparison,  infer- 
ence—  these  are  the  three  great  powers  of 
mind  ;  and  largely  as  you  have  been  trained  in 
observation,  comparison,  and  inference,  will 
your  writing  be  abundant  in  material  and  sound 
1  See  A  First  Manual  of  Composition,  pp.  119-122. 


22  PLANNING    THE    COMPOSITION 

in  method.  Every  childish  game  and  every 
manly  study  should  be  so  conducted  as  to  train 
these  powers.^ 

The  principle  of  likeness  and  difference  may 
apply  as  well  to  the  parts  as  to  the  whole  of  a 
theme.  The  fact  that  Caesar  and  Napoleon 
were  somewhat  alike  as  generals  yields  one 
main  division;  the  fact  that  they  were  some- 
what different  as  soldiers  might  yield  another 
main  division ;  the  fact  that  they  were  very 
different  as  statesmen  might  yield  a  third 
division.  Many  a  paragraph  of  these  divisions 
might  have  a  similar  principle  of  unity.  Even 
the  figures  of  speech  that  developed  the  para- 
graph could  spring  from  the  same  source; 
Caesar  the  statesman  could  possibly  be  likened 
to  a  shepherd  of  the  people,  while  Napoleon 
could  possibly  be  likened  to  a  wolf. 

In  the  outline  of  a  composition  which  is 
being  developed  by  contrast  and  comparison, 
we  first  set  down  memoranda  of  what  seem  to 
be  the  main  points  of  likeness  or  difference, 
and  number  these  as  topics  of  main  divisions. 
Under  these  heads  we  jot  down  memoranda  of 

i  On  the  elementary  principles  of  observation  and  infer- 
ence, see  A  First  Manual  of  Composition,  Chapter  V.,  The 
Logical  Paragraph. 


GROWTH   OF  THE   OUTLINE  23 

minor  likenesses  and  differences,  but  do  not  at 
first  decide  on  the  topic  of  every  paragraph. 

The  second  principle  of  development  is  that 
of  association  in  time.  Under  this,  the  narra- 
tor's guide  is  his  memory  of  the  order  in  which 
events  actually  occurred,  or  of  periods  of  time 
which  they  covered.  Of  course,  as  the  mind  re- 
traces its  steps,  it  runs  rapidly  over  certain 
parts  of  the  way  because  they  were  void  of  inci- 
dent and  seem  no  more  to  form  a  part  of 
the  story  than  do  our  sleeping  hours.  A  wise 
writer  does  not  attempt  to  treat  these  parts  as 
fully  as  the  others,  or  to  make  them  as  interest- 
ing. But  it  is  curious  to  note  how  a  little 
meditation  reduces  the  number  of  these  blank 
spots  in  one's  memory.  Association  in  time 
leads  the  mind  on ;  one  event  suggests  the 
next.  Watch  two  persons  trying  to  recall  a 
series  of  incidents  which  they  lived  through 
together.  Things  utterly  forgotten  are  recalled 
one  by  one,  for  a  given  detail  suggests  to  one 
person  that  which  the  other  fails  to  recover. 
"  To  be  sure,"  says  one,  "  and  do  you  remember 
how  — "  and  both  break  into  smiles  at  some- 
thing which  envious  time  had  apparently  sunk 
in  oblivion  for  them  both.  The  most  trifling 
.incidents  live  again.     It  is  all  more  or  less  like 


24  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

Dame  Quickly's  reminiscences,  in  Shakspere's 
Henry  Fourth: 

Thou  didst  swear  to  me  upon  a  parcel-gilt  goblet,  sit- 
ting in  my  Dolphin  chamber,  at  the  round  table,  by  a 
sea-cone  fire,  upon  Wednesday  m  Wheeson  week,  when 
the  prmce  broke  thy  head  for  likening  his  father  to  a 
singing-man  of  Windsor,  thou  didst  swear  to  me  then,  as 
I  was  washing  thy  wound,  to  marry  me  and  make  me  my 
lady  thy  wife.  Canst  thou  deny  it  ?  Did  not  goodwife 
Keech,  the  butcher's  wife,  come  in  then  and  call  me  gos- 
sip Quickly  ?  coming  to  borrow  a  mess  of  vinegar ;  tell- 
ing us  she  had  a  good  dish  of  prawns;  whereby  thou 
didst  desire  to  eat  some ;  whereby  I  told  thee  they  were 
ill  for  a  green  wound?  And  didst  thou  not,  when  she 
was  gone  down  stairs,  desire  me  to  be  no  more  such 
familiarity  with  such  poor  people;  saying  that  ere  long 
they  should  call  me  madam  ?  And  didst  thou  not  kiss 
me  and  bid  me  fetch  thee  thirty  shillings?  I  put  thee 
now  to  thy  book-oath :  deny  it,  if  thou  canst. 

Another  interesting  fact  about  the  time  prin- 
ciple is  that,  as  before  hinted,  memory  works 
on  past  time  in  stages.  It  brings  up  a  certain 
group  of  events,  then  pauses  before  recalling 
another  group.  This  is  partly  because  some 
point  of  time  past  is  recovered  as  a  landmark, 
and  partly  because  our  minds  insist  on  resting 
every  few  minutes,  though  only  for  a  second. 
The  events  of  some  fairly  definite  period  of 
time,  be  it  long  or  short,  are  grouped  togethe;* 


GROWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  25 

before  the  mind  consents  to  go  on  to  the  next 
group.  Here  it  may  be  noted  that  we  recall 
short  periods  better  than  long  ones  ;  particular 
hours  or  days  better  than  months  or  years.  We 
do  not  recall  the  oft-repeated  acts  of  careless- 
ness which  finally  resulted  in  a  bad  accident ; 
but  there  is  no  difficulty  in  remembering  the 
accident. 

This  grouping  tendency  is  what  gives  us  the 
divisions  of  a  composition  based  on  the  time 
principle,  and,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  pre- 
ceding paragraph,  some  long  divisions  are  likely 
to  represent  short  but  important  periods  of  past 
time,  while  some  short  divisions  stand  for  long 
but  insignificant  periods.  In  the  outline  of  the 
theme  Ave  first  set  down  by  themselves  the 
topics  of  the  most  important  divisions,  and 
under  these  the  minor  events.  We  number  the 
niain  divisions,  but  do  not  at  first  determine 
on  the  method  of  paragraphing  the  minor 
events. 

Another  principle  of  development  is  asso- 
ciation in  space.  Things  are  remembered 
together  and  presented  together  because  they 
were  seen  together.  An  earnest  effort  to 
recall  everything  contained  in  a  given  place  will 
result  in  a  surprising  amount  of  material.     To 


26  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

be  sure,  the  effort  will  often  reveal  the  careless- 
ness of  one's  observation.  But  observation  is  a 
power  that  can  be  cultivated  ;  the  ornithologist 
develops  an  eye  for  birds,  and  can  see  birds 
where  others  see  only  leaves. 

Association  in  space  is  like  association  in 
time  in  proceeding  by  successive  groups.  This 
fact  determines  the  main  divisions  of  a  descrip- 
tion. The  mind's  eye  flashes  back  over  the 
scene,  and  takes  first  one  group  of  images,  then 
its  neighbor.  Each  side  of  a  decorated  room 
would  naturally  supply  a  main  division  in  a 
description  of  the  decorations.  But  here  the 
time  element  is  brought  in  to  assist  the  reader,* 
if  the  writer  is  really  trying  to  further  that 
person's  ease.  One  seems  to  see  a  room  at  a 
glance,  but  one  does  not.  In  a  first  glance,  the 
eye  has  just  time  to  catch  a  general  impression 
of  the  whole.  This  may  be  shown  by  experi- 
ment. If  you  take  a  bunch  of  green  leaves, 
hold  it  behind  your  back,  and  then  suddenly 
expose  it  to  view,  the  beholder  will  see  at  first 
only  a  green  mass.  On  repeated  exposures  he 
will  see  more  and  more  of  the  details. 

"The  order  of  perception  may  be  summed 
up  thus  ; 


GBOWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  27 


1st. 

2d. 

3d. 

4th. 

Green 

Green 

Green   leaves 

of 

Green   leaves     of 

thing. 

leaves, 

different  kinds : 

different  kinds: 

light,  dark, 

Oak:    dark,  glos- 

lobed, etc. 

sy,  lobed. 
Maple :       lighter, 

star-shaped. 
Rose :  divided  into 

leaflets,  etc."  ^ 

Now,  in  presenting  the  appearance  of  any 
object  to  the  reader,  it  is  wise  to  give 
him  the  general  view,  the  impression,  before 
the  details,  because  he  will  grasp  the  whole  and 
its  parts  more  quickly  in  this  way.  A  theme 
describing  the  decorations  of  a  room  would 
perhaps  devote  one  main  division  to  each  side, 
but  each  of  these  would  open  with  a  paragraph 
of  general  impression.  The  outline  would  be 
roughly  as  follows: 

THE   DECORATIONS    OF    A    LIBRARY 

Introductory  Paragraph  —  On  entering,  you  receive 
several  general  impressions  :  sense  of  rich,  but  subdued 
coloring;  sense  of  seeing  pictorial  figures  and  decorative 
patterns,  but  not  of  being  in  a  picture  gallery ;  sense  of 
quiet  and  refinement. 

Main  Division  1.  —  North  v^^all :  Divided  into  three 
bands   by  long,  low  bookcase,  horizontal  central  space, 

1  Buck  and  Woodbridge  :   Expository  Writing  (Holt). 


28  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

and  frieze.  Appearance  of  bookcase  and  books.  Colors 
of  horizontal  central  space.  Figures  of  same.  Colors  of 
frieze.     Pattern  of  frieze. 

Main  Division  2.  —  East  wall:  General  effects.  Par- 
ticular effects. 

Main  Division  3.  —  South  wall:  General  effects.  Par- 
ticular eff'ects. 

Main  Division  4.  —  West  wall:  General  effects.  Par- 
ticular eft'ects. 

Another  principle  of  development  is  that 
of  facts  and  generalization.  If  we  examine  a 
group  of  facts,  and  find  them  all  agreeing  in 
some  particular,  we  are  moved  to  generalize  a 
statement  from  them.  Thus  we  say  :  This 
man  was  honest  in  dealing  with  A.  He  was 
honest  in  dealing  with  B.  He  was  honest  in 
dealing  with  C,  D,  etc.  In  general  therefore 
this  man  is  honest.  Or  we  may  reverse  the 
order  of  statement :  This  man  is,  in  general, 
honest  ;  for  he  was  honest  in  dealing  with  A, 
with  B,  with  C,  with  D,  etc. 

This  is  a  very  important  principle,  lying  at 
the  basis  of  a  very  important  kind  of  composi- 
tion; namely,  exposition.  Why  the  principles 
and  the  exposition  are  important  I  will  try  to 
show,  at  the  expense  of  a  digression. 

We  live  in  a  world  which  we  understand 
very   inadequately  —  a   world    of    unexplained 


GBOWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  29 

facts.  We  are  continually  seized  with  curiosity 
to  know  the  principles  by  which  these  facts  are 
secretly  related;  we  wish  to  know  if  only  for 
the  pleasure  of  knowing;  we  cannot  eat  or 
drink  the  sky,  yet  we  are  pleased  to  learn  why 
it  is  blue.  But  we  are  moved  also  by  the 
necessity  of  asking  what  general  principles  will 
serve  as  guides  to  safe  living.  If  we  have  no 
general  rules  to  guide  us,  we  shall  be,  as  Hux- 
ley would  say,  untimely  ended.  The  savage 
experiments  with  different  kinds  of  food  — 
berries,  let  us  say.  He  arrives  at  the  general 
principle  that  berries  which  are  dark  and  sweet 
are  wholesome.  He  tastes  a  berry  which  is 
dark,  but  not  sweet,  and  suspects  it;  he  gives 
it  to  some  hated  animal,  and  watches  the  evil 
effect  wdth  a  satisfied  horror  like  that  of  the 
amateur  vivisectionist.  That  evening,  beside 
the  fire  of  his  hut,  he  delivers  one  of  the  first 
pieces  of  exposition  to  which  a  patient  world 
has  listened.  He  details  the  experiments  made 
upon  himself  and  that  made  upon  the  hated 
animal,  and  finally  announces  these  general 
principles :  *'  Berries  that  are  sweet  and  dark 
are  good  for  you,  children.  Some  berries  that 
are  dark  but  not  sweet  will  kill  rats."  And 
here  he  will  probably  turn  his  exposition  into 


30  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

exhortation,  and  say  :  "  Beware  of  all  dark 
berries  that  are  not  sweet." 

I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  make  this 
digression  in  order  to  point  out  now  that  the 
principle  of  facts  and  generalization  is  a  most 
fruitful  principle  of  invention.  Every  one  of  us 
lives  by  a  hundred,  a  thousand  rules,  correct  or 
incorrect ;  if  they  are  very  incorrect,  we  die  of 
them  sooner  or  later.  The  written  explanation 
of  any  one  of  these  rules,  as  ''  How  to  Dress  in 
Winter,"  would  make  a  composition.  Practi- 
cally everything  we  value  in  life  is  obtained 
by  some  use  of  generalization,  and  therefore 
we  shall  find  no  lack  of  topics  for  themes  to  be 
constructed  by  this  method. 

The  principle  we  are  speaking  of  may  govern 
the  parts  of  a  theme.  A  good  exposition  does 
not  attempt  to  explain  several  different  gener- 
alizations, but  it  makes  use  of  important  sub- 
ordinate principles,  and  the  development  of 
one  of  these  constitutes  a  main  division;  for 
example : 

HOW   FIRE   AIDED   THE   ABORIGINES  ^ 

Introductory  Paragraph.  —  Even  in  its  aboriginal 
uses,  fire  greatly  multiplied  the  resources  of  man. 

1  Outline  developed  from  Mr.  Iles's  paragraph,  p.  104. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  31 

Main  Division  1.  —  Subordinate  generalization  :  Its 
heat  gave  him  a  rich  array  of  benefits. 

Enabled  him  to  make  dug-outs.     Explain. 

Result :  enlarged  his  knowledge  of  country. 

Result :  gave  him  better  choice  of  home. 

Illustrations. 

Gave  him  better  choice  of  home.     For, 

dug-out  enabled  him  to  enlarge  his  knowledge  of  coun- 
try :  Illustrations. 

Gave  him  pottery.  For,  gave  him  means  to  make 
pottery.  Narrative  of  his  accidental  discoveries.  Nar- 
rative of  experiments. 

Main  Division  2.  —  Subordinate  generalization:  Its 
light  was  also  generous  in  its  blessings. 

Permitted  work  after  sundown. 

Increased  cheerfulness  of  cave  home. 

Increased  safety,  by  lessening  danger  from 
(a)  animals,     (h)  enemies. 

Increased  pleasures  of  leisure,  for, 
permitted  easier  capture  of  game. 

Exposition  of  torch-light  fishing ;  torch-light  hunting. 

Still  another  principle  of  association  is 
that  of  cause  and  effect.  It  appears  in  many 
forms.  In  narrative  it  often  disputes  the  right 
of  way  with  the  time  order,  for  it  may  be  more 
important  to  tell  why  a  thing  happened  than 
when  it  happened.  A  theme  on  such  a  subject 
as  The  American  Revolution  might  be  called 
narrative  exposition,  for  it  would  state  events 
which  resulted  from  a  given  cause,  and  it  would 
state  them  in  the  order  of  occurrence  if   pos- 


32  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

sible.  The  principle  is  most  active  in  exposi- 
tion, where  principles  and  reasons  are  set  forth, 
and  here  it  is  often  bound  up  with  the  law  of 
facts  and  generalization.  Scientific  exposition 
sets  forth  both  the  classification  and  the  causes 
of  phenomena.  Wh^  the  sky  is  blue,  the  earth 
quakes,  cholera  is  epidemic,  coffee  is  bad  for 
nerves,  scientific  exposition  seeks  to  explain 
so  far  as  human  methods  can  explain  the 
why  of  anything. 

The  principle  of  cause  and  effect  may  govern 
the  formation  of  main  divisions.  If  there  are 
several  prominent  causes  of  a  given  effect, 
then  the  main  divisions  of  the  theme  will  each 
expound  one  cause  and  its  minor  causes  or 
details,  thus: 

WHY   THE   ROSE   IS    SO   MUCH   ADMIRED  ^ 

Introductory  Paragraph.  —  Perhaps  few  people  have 
ever  asked  themselves  why  they  admire  a  rose  so  much 
more  than  other  flowers.     Two  reasons. 

Main  Division  1.  —  Delicately  graded  red  the  loveli- 
est of  all  pure  colors.  Examples  from  flowers,  skies, 
fabrics. 

Main  Division  2.  —  In  the  rose  no  shadow  except  what 
is  composed  of  color.  Experiments  to  show  this.  Rea- 
sons why  it  is  true.     Comparison  with  other  flowers. 

1  Outline  expanded  from  Ruskin's  paragraph,  p.  105. 


GROWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  33 

ONE   REASON   OF    INCREASE   IN   THE   SIZE    OF 
SLUMS  1 

Introductory  Paragraph.  —  The  reason  stated  :  Im- 
migrants cling  so  closely  to  the  great  city  because  there 
they  find  opportnn ity  to  get  money  for  their  children's  work. 

Main  Division  1.  —  Children  can  often  work  in  facto- 
ries. Limitations  of  this  possibility  by  (a)  age  laws ;  (b) 
rigid  or  lax  enforcement  of  laws ;  e.g.  (i)  New  York  ;  (2) 
Illinois,  etc.     Narrate  the  examples. 

Main  Division  2.  —  Children  can  often  get  work  in 
sweat-shops.  Extent  of  the  opportunity  offered  by  pres- 
ent state  of  public  sentiment  in  matter  of  buying  sweat- 
shop goods,  in  (a)  New  York  city ;  (b)  Chicago,  etc. 

Having  surveyed  the  five  principles  of  de- 
velopment, but  in  rather  a  theoretical  way, 
we  must  now  attempt  to  grasp  them  in  a 
practical  way.  We  must  build  up  the  out- 
lines of  five  long  themes  by  their  assistance. 
Each  theme  will  naturally  owe  its  unity  to  one 
principle  in  particular,  but  will  make  free 
use  of  the  other  principles  in  developing  its 
parts. 

But  before  we  begin  the  work,  the  present 
writer  and  the  instructor  of  the  class  wish  to 
make  an  appeal  to  the  student,  and  show  him 
how  the  exercise  that  is  coming  opens  up  a 
wider  plan.  We  propose  to  you  the  advisa- 
1  Outline  expanded  from  Mrs.  Kelly's  paragraph,  p.  105, 


34  PLANNING    THE   COMPOSITION 

bility  of  working  on  various  phases  of  these 
same  five  themes  for  a  long  time.  We  sug- 
gest that  the  outlines  when  drawn  up  shall 
be  revised  over  and  over,  as  new  principles 
are  learned  ;  that  then,  after  the  paragraphs 
are  written,  these  shall  be  revised  in  the 
same  way  ;  then  the  sentences,  and  lastly  the 
choice  of  words.  We  know  that  this  propo- 
sition involves  keeping  at  the  themes  so  long 
that  the  student  will  hunger  for  new  topics, 
and  will  sometimes  feel  disgusted  with 
the  old.  But  we  know  on  the  other  hand 
that  if  these  five  long  themes  are  thoroughly 
done,  with  a  view  to  correctness  and  clear- 
ness, the  task  of  future  composition  will  be 
vastly  lightened,  and  we  shall  be  ready  to 
write  —  under  Part  Second  —  with  an  eye  to 
pleasure  rather  than  to  mere  correctness;  also 
that  if  the  task  of  the  long  themes  is  gone  at 
with  enthusiasm  there  will  be  a  constantly 
increasing  delight  in  the  thought  of  doing- 
something  in  a  finished  fashion,  to  the 
very  best  of  our  ability ;  also  that,  in  the  soul 
of  every  manly  youth  and  womanly  maid,  there 
will  grow  up  a  sense  of  satisfaction  such  as 
the  author  of  Tom  Brown  was  rash  enough 
to   ascribe   to   the    British    youth   alone  —  the 


GROWTH  OF  THE  OUTLINE  35 

satisfaction  which  comes  of  steady,  prolonged 
grappling  with  resistance  ;  and,  finally,  that 
every  writer  of  the  five  themes  will  be  able 
to  show,  certain  months  from  now,  a  series  of 
papers  in  which  he  may  take  an  honest  pride: 
each  composition  sound  in  thought,  reason- 
ably proportioned,  full  in  treatment,  coherent 
and  easily  read,  exact  in  wording,  and  free  from 
serious  awkwardness  of  phrasing.  Grumble  as 
much  as  you  please  about  the  tediousness  of 
the  work ;  make  light,  if  you  choose,  of  the 
poor  theme  which  you  have  always  with 
you ;  but  keep  at  it  ;  and  remember  what  the 
painter  Benjamin  West  said  to  that  Morse 
who,  after  being  trained  to  paint  portraits 
patiently,  learned  patiently  the  way  to  put 
continents  in  instant  communication.  "Finish 
one  picture,"  said  West  to  Morse,  "and  you 
are  a  painter."     And  now  for  the  first  sketch. 

Exercise  1.  (  Written.}  ^  Recall  some  inter- 
esting spring,  or  summer,  or  autumn,  or  winter, 
or  some  interesting  trip  that  lasted  for  several 

1  Since  the  choice  of  a  congenial  subject  will  make  a  good 
deal  of  difference  in  the  degree  of  enthusiasm  with  which  the 
student  perfects  his  theme,  the  instructor  may  well  permit  a 
choice  of  topics  not  provided  for  in  this  or  the  next  four 
exercises,  if  it  promises  the  same  type  of  structure  as  those 
here  suggested. 


36  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

clays  or  weeks.  Divide  the  entire  period  into 
its  main  time  divisions,  jot  down  the  topics  of 
these,  and  number  them.  Then  tax  your 
memory  for  every  event  that  happened  dur- 
ing each  period.  Jot  down  memoranda  of 
them  all,  no  matter  how  trivial,  and  pretty 
much  in  the  order  in  which  you  happen  to 
recall  them.  They  can  be  arranged  and  sorted 
later  — for  this  outline  and  every  paper  you 
write  should  he  carefully  preserved.  Do  not 
hesitate  to  mention  interesting  objects  that 
in  the  completed  theme  will  need  description; 
or  any  interesting  causes  and  effects  ;  or  any 
interesting^,  comparisons  that  suggest  them- 
selves. Mike  a  clean  copy  of  all  your  mem- 
oranda —  tiiese  need  not  be  in  complete 
sentences.  -Head  the  paper  after  this  fashion : 
Memories  af  an  Interesting  Trip. 
i 

Exercise;  2.  (  Written,^  Select  either  a  tree, 
a  room,  or  a  house,  that  you  can  observe  easily. 
If  the  tree,  room,  or  house  is  particularly  beau- 
tiful,'so  muc4  the  better.  Study  the  looks  of 
the  object  thoroughly,  until  you  can  shut  your 
eyes  and  recaU  every  detail.  It  will  require  a 
good  many  shiktings  of  the  eye.  Then  decide 
on  the  main  divisions  of  your  theme,  according 


GEOWTH   OF  THE  OUTLINE  37 

to  the  main  parts  of  the  object.    Jot  down  these 
main  topics  and  number  them.     Make  memo- 
randa under   each    main   division   as  follows  : 
First,  the  general  shape  and  color  of  the  part ; 
any  comparison  suggested  by  the  general  look  ; 
any  effect  produced  upon  your  own  mind  by  the 
general  appearance.     Then  the  details  of  ^ 
and  color,  in  order  of  size  ;    as,  all  the 
objects   and   decorations,  then  all  the 
then  all  the  smallest.     Do  all  the  wri 
memory,  but  be  sure  that  nothing  esc 

Exercise  3.   {Written,')     Choose 
following  subjects  of  exposition  :    T 
Fire  in  Modern  Times  ;  The  Benefit 
ics ;    Kinds  of  Boys  ;    Kinds  of  Gix 
the  subject  over  thoroughly,  and  de 
the  main  divisions  of  the  outline.     S 
topics  of  the  main  divisions  and  nt 
Then  write  memoranda  of  every  sub( 
eral  statement  or  fact  that  you  ev 
Give  full  memoranda  of  each  fact, 
concerned  at  the  prospective  leng^ci 
position.     Much  will  later  have  to 

Exercise  4.  (Written,)  Sele 
following  topics  :  One  Spr 
Autumn,  Winter,  Week,  Trip^ 


38  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

Another ;  One  Tree  Compared  with  Another  ; 
One  Hk)use  Compared  with  Another  ;  A  Com- 
parison\of  Two  Persons  of  My  Acquaintance  ; 
Benefits!  and  Injuries  of  School  Athletics ; 
Advantages  and  Disadvantages  of  City  Life  as 
Comparep  with  Village  Life.  Think  over  the 
'^^*ect  tporoughly,  divide  it  according  to  the 
pie  I  of  comparison  or  contrast,  write  down 
ppics  and  number  them.  Then  write 
iemoranda  of  all  the  sub-principles  or 
^t  you  can  think  of.  Use  comparisons, 
description,  exposition  of  causes  and 
ny thing  that  seems  needed  to  make 
clear  and  full  in  treatment. 

1:  5.  (^Written.^    Select   one  of   the 

lopics  :    Causes  of  Failure   in  Busi- 

'cts   of    Procrastination ;    Why  the 

fees  ;    Causes  of  the  War  of  Seces- 

pns    why    Some    Strikes    Succeed 

V  Fail.     Study  thoroughly  the  topic 

';ermine  on  the  main  divisions  by 

%  principles  of   cause    and   effect. 

'''mber  the  topic  of  each  main  divi- 

Iponsult   the    necessary   books   of 

tax  your  own  memory  in  order 

subordinate  causes  and  effects, 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  IN   THE  OUTLINE      39 

all  the  comparisons,  all  the  particular  incidents 
and  descriptions  that  will  develop  the  main 
divisions  fully.  Make  the  treatment  generous 
in  scale.  In  your  memoranda,  give  the  pith 
of  each  comparison,  incident,  or  description. 

§  2.  Unity  of  Thought  in  the  Outline.  —  Unity 
in  composition  means  finding  and  saying  all  that 
needs  to  be  said  on  a  given  subject,  and  no  more 
than  needs  to  be  said.  Unity  is  often  no  easy 
achievement,  though  in  the  long  run  it  saves 
labor  both  for  writer  and  for  reader,  and  of 
course  adds  to  the  value  of  the  composition  as 
subject  matter. 

The  first  condition  of  unity  is  a  limited  sub- 
ject. In  order  to  find  all  that  needs  to  be  said, 
it  is  necessary  to  get  a  subject  that  the  writer 
can  master  in  the  time  allowed.  "  Whether 
animals  reason"  is  a  topic  beyond  the  powers  of 
any  student ;  not  so  the  recording  of  personal 
observations  that  seem  to  bear  on  the  subject. 
A.  room  can  be  described  in  a  hundredth  part 
of  the  time  required  to  master  the  subject  of 
national  expansion.  The  latter  task  would 
indeed  test  the  student's  mettle  profitably,  for 
little  is  to  be  expected  of  the  youth  who  never 
burns  to  dispose  of  questions  that  vex  trained 


40  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

statesmen  ;  but  it  would  mean  a  month's  work 
before  even  a  preliminary  paper  could  profitably 
be  written. 

The  second  condition  of  unity  is  like  the  first. 
The  subject  chosen  must  be  mastered.  The 
practised  describer  goes  repeatediy  to  the  object 
and  gazes  at  it  until  every  tint  and  line  is 
repeated  in  the  camera  of  his  mind.  Then  he 
writes  from  memory,  grasping  the  subject  better 
so.  The  practised  expounder  will  not  set  pen 
to  paper  before  he  seems  to  have  all  the  facts, 
and  to  have  discovered  the  law  that  explains 
them  all.  For  attaining  this  mastery  of  a  sub- 
ject most  people  find  silent  thought  the  best 
single  method,  but  some  are  helped  by  convers- 
ing on  the  subject.  Conversation  is  a  prac- 
ticable method  when  all  the  members  of  a  class 
are  using  the  same  topic. ^  The  prelitninary 
work,  whether  carried  on  as  one  sits  or  walks, 
in  silence  or  conversation,  is  thinking,  and 
thinking  is  the  hardest  business  in  the  world. 
Yet  the  thinking  must  be  done.  Otherwise, 
when  you  begin  to  write  you  will  surely  stray 
from  your  subject,  under  the  delusion  that  you 
are    keeping   beautifully   to    the   point;    quite 

1  Compare  the  "  vocabulary  "  exercises  in  A  First  Manual 
of  Composition. 


UNITY   OF  THOUGHT  IN   THE  OUTLINE     41 

possibly  you  may  even  leave  unsaid  the  one 
important  thing. 

Yet  the  tendency  to  stray  is  not  so  bad  a 
thing  —  otherwise  you  would  not  have  been 
urged  in  the  preceding  chapter  to  jot  down  in 
your  theme-outlines  everything  that  occurred 
to  you  as  at  all  bearing  on  the  subject.  One 
half  of  unity  consists  in  not  overlooking  what- 
ever needs  to  be  said.  An  eminent  thinker  ^ 
has  pointed  out  that  the  scatter-brained  type 
of  mind  is  often  very  effective,  because  it  is 
full  of  notions ;  it  is  not  barren.  Its  thoughts 
have  the  princix^le  of  growth  in  them.  A 
great  prose  writer  of  this  very  type,  Thomas 
De  Quincey,  made  much  of  the  fact  that  a 
paragraph  seems  to  grow  under  the  hand  of 
the  writer. 2  Tlie  mere  contact  of  a  soft  pen- 
cil with  a  page  of  rough  paper  will  often 
seem  to  start  a  stream  of  thought,  as  the 
pressure  on  the  gold  point  starts  the  ink  of 
a  fountain  pen. 

1  Professor  William  James.  See  A  First  Manual  of  Com- 
position^ Index. 

2  A  similar  conception  appears  in  Bosanquet's  Logic,  I, 
p.  vii.  Starting  from  Bosanquet's  kinetic  conception  of 
judgment  forms,  Messrs.  Scott  and  Denney  have  applied  the 
idea  of  growth  to  the  various  forms  of  the  isolated  paragraph, 
in  their  admirable  Compositioyi-Ithetoric  (Allyn  and  Bacon). 


42  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

But  the  person  who  finds  this  experience 
true  of  himself  is  exactly  the  person  who  most 
profits  by  preliminary  thinking  about  the  unity 
of  his  work.  His  mind  is  stimulated  to  the 
right  sort  of  invention  by  the  effort  to  choose 
and  reject  among  his  thoughts.  Gradually 
what  was  a  mere  nebula  of  vague  notions  as- 
sumes a  definite  centre,  a  dominating  princi- 
ple, a  pattern  which  will  control  the  structure 
of  the  theme.  What  he  finally  produces  will 
be  like  a  vigorous  but  symmetrical  tree,  not  a 
gadding  vine  full  of  waste  and  leafage.  Or, 
again,  it  will  be  like  a  rose,  developing  in 
circle  after  circle  of  petals  from  the  central 
bud,  but  never  departing  from  the  type  of  a 
rose. 

To  come  to  practical  measures,  we  must  rec- 
ognize in  the  Title  the  surest  guide  to  making 
a  unified  outline.  The  Title  should  be  made 
as  narrow  and  definite  as  possible  before  any 
other  writing  is  done.^  It  is  a  dangerous 
thing  to  write  a  theme  first  and  try  to  name 
it  afterward. 

Then  we  must  recognize  the  Outline  as  the 

1  In  the  preceding  chapter,  definite  titles  were  assigned 
for  the  outlines ;  hence  no  practise  in  framing  titles  has 
been  afforded  as  yet. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  IN   THE  OUTLINE     43 

quickest  way  of  testing  the  unity  of  that  pre- 
liminary thinking  which  led  to  the  title.  Tedi- 
ous as  outline-making  is,  an  outline  is  as 
essential  to  a  composition  as  bones  are  to  a 
bird.  In  the  course  of  our  preliminary  think- 
ing we  may  put  down  whatever  thoughts  occur 
to  us :  events,  or  descriptive  details,  or  reasons, 
or  proofs,  as  the  case  may  be.  When  all  seems 
to  be  done,  it  remains  before  writing  to  study 
the  outline  and  ask  :  Is  there,  here,  anything 
irrelevant  to  the  subject  as  narrowed  in  the 
title?  also,  Is  anything  relevant  to  the  subject 
missing  ?  After  the  theme  is  written,  we  may 
scrutinize  it  by  paragraphs  and  sentences,  and 
strike  out  such  of  these  smaller  units  as  depart 
from  the  exact  topic  of  the  whole.  For  the 
larger  matters  of  unity,  forethought  is  the  best 
recipe,  the  next  best  being  revision  of  the  out- 
line; while  for  the  smaller  matters,  the  only 
recipe  is  revision. 

Exercise  6.  (Oral.}  Study  the  following 
rough  memoranda,  drawn  from  an  address  by 
the  late  Phillips  Brooks.  Then  unify  the  out- 
line by  inserting  the  word  graduation  in  each 
division  in  such  a  way  as  to  arrange  all  the 
thoughts  around  this  one  word. 


44  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 


GRADUATION 

Introduction.  —  An  idea  that  pervades  all  our 
life.  There  is  always  coming  to  us  some  kind  of  com- 
mencement day. 

Main  Division  1.  —  Acquisition  of  knowledge  vs. 
use  of  knowledge.  Some  people  never  cease  mere  col- 
lection of  knowledge. 

Main  Division  2.  —  Facts  vs.  opinions.  One's  very 
manners  ought  to  show  that  he  is  thoughtful,  has  opin- 
ions.    Charm  of  this  quality  in  manners. 

Main  Division  3.  —  Freer  action.  Possibilities  of 
living  out  all  that  you  have  learned ;  much  of  it  in 
restricted  home  life. 

Main  Division  4.  —  Truer  and  more  earnest  feeling. 
Not  mere  sentiment,  but  large,  deep  enthusiasms.  Our 
affections  and  indignations  the  deepest  part  of  our  natures. 

Conclusion.  —  One  should  never  grow  tired  of 
life.  This  constant  graduation  will  make  it  satisfying 
and  full  of  deep  fascination. 

ExEKCiSE  7.  {Oral.}  Examine  the  follow- 
ing memoranda  for  themes,  to  see  if  unity 
has  been  violated  by  the  intrusion  of  irrele- 
vant topics.  Sum  up  all  the  topics  which  are 
strictly  relevant  to  the  subject  as  narrowed  in 
the  title. 

1.     MY   LARGEST    SMALL-MOUTHED   BASS 

Purity  of  water  in  great  lakes. 

Presence  of  limestone  on  many  shores ;  bass  and  lime- 
stone often  found  together. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  IN   THE  OpTLINE     45 

Why  bass  like  limestone  regions. 

Best  time  of  year  for  fishing  for  bass. 

Two  chief  kinds  of  bass  —  large-mouthed  and  small- 
mouthed. 

The  small-mouthed  the  gamier. 

Best  bait  for  bass. 

How  I  happened  to  be  fishing. 

What  luck  I  had  had  during  day. 

Was  just  putting  up  my  tackle. 

The  big  bass  bit  gently. 

How  he  looked  when  being  played  in  the  water. 

Small  size  of  hook ;  no  landing  net ;  fear  of  losing  him. 

Led  him  up  into  shallow  water. 

Jumped  in  to  pull  him  out. 

Weight  six  pounds. 

What  people  said. 

Many  parties  out  next  day. 

None  had  much  luck. 

One  ,party,  however,  caught  large  wall-eyed  pike, 
where  none  had  been  seen  for  years. 

2.  THE  COLORS  OF  A  CANADIAN  GROVE 
FROM  NEAR  BY 

Canada  a  cool,  pleasant  summer  resort. 

Many  cone-bearing  trees  in  Canada. 

The  public  school  books  describe  these  trees. 

The  Canadians  call  the  arbor  vitse  "  cedar,"  though  the 
school-books  correct  this  error. 

This  "  cedar "  is  much  used  for  railroad  ties,  as  it 
lasts  a  long  time. 

The  chief  Canadian  conifers  are  the  arbor  vitse,  the 
spruce,  the  balsam-fir,  the  hemlock,  the  white  pine,  and 
the  tamarack. 

On  a  hillside,  near  the  foot  of  which  there  is  a  little 
marsh,  you  will  often  see  all  these  kinds  of  trees. 


46  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

The  grove  I  speak  of  is  in  such  a  location,  and  con- 
tains all  these  trees. 

The  white  pines  are  the  tallest. 

The  balsam-fir  is  probably  the  straightest. 

All  the  trees  are  more  or  less  conical  in  shape,  and  so 
the  hillside  grove  looks  like  a  curious  pattern  of  tri- 
angles. 

When  the  declining  sun  lights  them  up,  these  trees 
are  very  beautiful.  I^othing  more  delightful  than  to  be 
in  among  them,  and  watch  the  rich  light  stream  or 
filter  through  the  branches.  All  sorts  of  magic  effects 
of  light  and  gloom. 

They  say  that  such  places  in  the  Black  Forest  are 
thought  to  be  the  homes  of  elves  and  sprites. 

From  a  short  distance,  color  effect  a  symphony  in 
green. 

Spruces  make  blackest  shadows ;  needles  dark,  short, 
densely  set ;  relieved  by  bright  green  tips ;  balsam-fir 
much  like  the  spruce  in  its  needles,  but  not  so  thick  and 
dense. 

Pines  give  next  degree  of  shade ;  a  sort  of  twilight 
shade. 

I^eedles  longer,  and  looser  set  than  those  of  spruce. 

Side  by  side  with  spruce,  pine  the  darker  tree ;  not  so 
at  little  distance. 

Tamarack,  lighter  in  tone  than  pine ;  feathery. 

Arbor  vitee,  luxuriant  sprays,  give  masses  of  bright 
green. 

Some  birches  in  every  such  grove.  Flashing  white 
stems.  Light  green  and  silvery  foliage.  Lowell's  poem 
on  the  birch. 

Sunlight  heightens  these  effects. 

Who  would  not  live  amid  such  beautiful  scenes? 

Who  would  not  be  grateful  to  heaven  for  them  ? 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  IN   THE   OUTLINE     47 

Exercise  8.  QOraL}  Make  an  effort  to 
construct  titles  for  the  two  groups  of  memo- 
randa preceding.  Let  each  be  broad  enough  to 
cover  all  the  memoranda  in  its  group.  See 
if  the  result  is  really  descriptive  —  gives  any 
fair  hint  of  what  the  outline  contains — and  is 
of  reasonable  length  at  the  same  time. 

Exercise  9.  {Oral,)  Examine  the  following 
memoranda,  and  say  what  essential  topics  seem 
to  you  to  have  been  omitted  from  the  outlines. 

1.  THE   CAUSES    OF   FAILURE   IN   SCHOOL 

STUDIES 

There  are  three  causes. 
First,  the  student  may  be  lazy.     Examples. 
Secondly,  the  student  may  be  dull.     Examples. 
Thirdly,  the  teacher  may  not  teach  well. 

2.  THE   SECRETS    OF   SUCCESS    IN   BUSINESS 

The  secrets  of  success  in  business  are  two  in  number. 

(a)  Unscrupulousness,    or   willingness   to   succeed 
at  the  expense  of  others.     Examples. 

(b)  Shrewdness,   or    good   business    sense.       Ex- 
amples. 

Exercise  10.  (OraL)  In  the  following 
theme  draw  a  very  neat  and  very  faint  pencil 
line  through  such  paragraphs,  or  sentences,  or 
words,  as  seem  to  be  irrelevant  to  the  subject 


48  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

as  phrased  in  the  title.     Read  aloud  the  entire 
piece  in  the  revised  form. 

HOW    THE   CHANNEL   WAS   BLOCKED 

The  St.  Mary's  river  connects  Lake  Superior,  that 
lonely  and  magnificent  body  of  icy  water,  with  the 
sister  lake,  Huron,  a  distance  of  thirty-five  miles  by 
the  so-called  old  channel,  and  about  twenty-five  by  the 
new.  It  was  found  that  the  traffic  between  the  two  lakes, 
in  iron  ore,  lumber,  and  grain,  was  becoming  so  great 
that  a  shortening  and  deepening  of  the  channel  was 
necessary;  so  the  government  dug  this  short  channel, 
twenty-tw^o  feet  deep.  I  tell  you  how  deep  it  was, 
because  it  is  important  to  my  story.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  not  really  twenty-two  feet  deep  all  the  way  down, 
because  "  the  big  fellows,"  as  the  sailors  call  the  larger 
boats,  often  leave  long  wakes  of  muddy  water  behind 
them,  showing  that  they  have  touched  bottom,  though 
drawing  only  eighteen  feet  of  water. 

My  brother  and  I  were  camping  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river  —  for  everybody  calls  it  a  river,  though  it  is 
really  a  strait  —  in  August  of  1899.  We  heard  of  a 
place  through  a  friend  w^ho  had  camped  there,  and  we 
thought  it  was  going  to  be  great  fun,  for  he  said  the  fish- 
ing was  good,  and  we  knew  the  air  and  water  were  pure 
and  would  be  most  wholesome  for  a  couple  of  city  boys 
who  had  been  shut  up  in  a  schoolroom  for  ten  months. 
We  got  a  tent,  went  to  Mackinac,  and  thence  to  our  camp- 
ing place,  a  little  point  of  land  with  only  one  or  two 
houses  anywhere  near  it.  But  it  rained  a  good  deal,  and 
either  the  big  boats  had  driven  all  the  bass  away,  or  else 
the  nets  had  caught  them,  and  the  fun  was  not  all  we 
had  been  led  to  expect. 

About  the  best  thing  we  could  do  was  to  lie  around  in 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  IN   THE   OUTLINE     49 

hammocks  and  read  novels  and  watch  the  boats  go  by, 
until  it  was  time  to  get  a  meal. 

We  saw  a  big  boat  go  up,  called  the  Douglas  Hough- 
ton. She  was  an  enormous  craft,  over  five  hundred  feet 
long.  She  drew  a  consort,  which  was  called,  I  believe, 
the  Fritz.  Well,  time  went  by,  and  one  day  we  were 
eating  our  dinner  in  front  of  the  tent,  when  we  heard 
a  dull  sound  like  iron  dragging  over  a  rock  bottom. 
There  came  a  long,  terrific  blast  of  a  steamer's  whistle. 
There  is  nothing  that  will  give  you  a  queerer  feeling 
in  the  chest  than  one  of  those  big  whistles  blown  unex- 
pectedly close  by  your  ears ;  and  this  one  was  not  more 
than  two  hundred  feet  from  us.  W^e  jumped  up,  and 
there  was  the  Houghton  coming  down  stream,  and  steer- 
ing straight  for  our  bank,  at  a  sharp  angle.  Her  anchors 
had  been  dropped  and  were  trying  to  hold  the  bottom, 
but  without  effect.  Evidently  something  was  the  matter. 
Maybe  the  pilot  couldn't  hold  her  as  she  came  around 
the  point.  Afterwards  we  learned  that  in  trying  to  round 
so  quickly  the  boat  had  broken  her  steering  apparatus, 
and  this  had  been  carried  away.  Well,  that  five-hundred 
foot  boat  sheered  round  till  she  lay  straight  across  the 
narrow  channel,  and  then  stopped.  At  first  we  thought 
she  would  walk  straight  up  upon  our  bank. 

Meantime  the  Houghton's  consort,  the  Fritz,  was  com- 
ing straight  along,  though  she  dropped  her  anchors  too. 
There  was  no  help  for  it.  Bow-on  she  went  bang  into 
the  Houghton  amidships,  and  cut  a  long  hole,  a  fifteen- 
foot  hole,  as  neatly  as  an  ax  would  cut  into  a  cheese. 
The  blow  sent  the  Fritz  bounding  back  something  like 
twenty  feet.  The  water  poured  into  the  Houghton,  and 
she  sank  in  a  few  minutes. 

The  captain  of  the  sunken  boat  came  ashore  and  went 
to  a  telephone  office  about  a  mile  away  and  telephoned 
the  news  to  the  owners.     A  man  who  heard  him  at  the 


50  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

'phone  told  us  about  it.  He  reported  his  accident  in  a 
manly  way,  though  he  must  have  known  he  would  be 
blamed  for  the  disaster.  He  didn't  make  any  long  pre- 
amble about  how  sorry  he  was,  and  how  it  wasn't  his 
fault.  "  The  Douglas  Iloughton,^^  says  he,  "  is  sunk,"  — 
just  like  that  he  said  it,  "  sunk  in  eighteen  feet  of  water, 
at  Encampment.  Steering  gear  carried  away,"  says  he. 
"  Fritz  ran  into  her  and  cut  a  long  hole  in  starboard  side, 
amidships."  Then  he  went  on  to  make  arrangements 
for  a  div^er  and  the  machinery  necessary  for  lightening 
her.     I  liked  that  captain ;  he  was  the  right  sort. 

Well,  it  took  them  five  days  to  get  the  steamer  afloat. 
Up  at  the  "  Soo  "  the  boats  were  lined  up  in  great  num- 
bers waiting  for  the  clearing  of  the  channel. 

We  went  on  board  the  Houghton  a  good  many  times, 
and  got  acquainted  with  some  of  the  crew.  But  we  didn't 
stay  to  see  her  afloat  again.  What  little  fishing  there  had 
been  was  now  spoiled,  and  we  started  for  home  by  the 
mail  tug,  which  was  small  enough  to  get  around  the  bow 
of  the  half-submerged  monster. 


Exercise  11.  (Written.)  Every  unified 
composition  can  be  summarized  in  small  space. 
A  unified  tlieme  of  a  dozen  paragraphs  can  be 
summed  up  in  a  single  paragraph.  Apply  this 
test  to  the  unity  of  the  preceding  theme  after 
you  have  revised  it.  Sum  it  up  in  a  single 
paragraph  of  not  more  than  six  sentences.  It 
may  be  that  you  can  then  sum  up  the  paragraph 
in  a  single  long  but  well-formed  sentence.  See 
what  can  be  done  in  this  direction. 


ORDER    OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE      51 

Exercise  12.  (TVritten,}  Take  your  own 
theme  outlines,  and  study  them  with  regard  to 
the  principles  of  unity.  Strike  out  whatever 
seems  irrelevant  to  the  subject.  In  this  work  you 
must  be  guided  not  only  by  the  sense  of  logical 
unity,  but  by  good  taste.  Consider  what  the 
purpose  of  your  theme  is  —  whether  the  tone  is 
to  be  formal  and  strictly  logical,  or  whether,  for 
purposes  of  humor  or  added  interest,  you  may 
allow  yourself  an  occasional  slight  digression. 
If  in  doubt,  err  on  the  side  of  too  great  strict- 
ness. Decide  all  that  you  can  decide  for  your- 
self. It  may  profit  you  to  have  the  opinion  of 
the  instructor  in  matters  of  taste,  but  he  will 
probably  prefer  that  you  should  finally  decide 
the  matter  for  yourself. 

^        §  3.     Order   of  Topics  in   the   Outline. 

A.  The  Coherent  Order,  —  Close  following 
of  any  plan  of  development  explained  in 
Section  1  will  insure  a  good  order  of  topics 
in  the  outline.  But  it  often  happens  that  the 
mind  does  not  follow  closely  any  particular 
method,  though  making  use  of  it  to  collect  its 
thoughts.  It  will  be  profitable  to  approach  the 
subject  of  order  again  at  this  point,  and  take  a 
more  general  view  of   it  than   before.      It  is 


52  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

clear  that  the  topics  of  any  composition  should 
come  in  an  order  which  is  easily  followed  ;  and 
a  composition  so  organized  is  said  to  have  Co- 
herence. Now,  thoughts  are  by  no  means  sure 
to  occur  in  a  coherent  order.  Our  minds  have 
a  trick  of  thinking  a  little  way  on  a  given  sub- 
ject, and  then  stopping  short.  By  and  by  some- 
thing suggests  the  old  train  of  thought,  and 
we  go  on  with  it,  or,  possibly,  think  it  all  over 
again.  A  good  illustration  is  the  letter- writing 
of  an  unmethodical  person.  The  boy  at  school 
writes  home  that  two  of  his  overcoat  buttons 
have  come  off.  While  he  is  writing  this  he  re- 
members how  cold  it  was  when  he  fastened  that 
coat  over  his  thick  muffler,  and  broke  off  the 
top  button.  The  cold  suggests  a  recent  straw- 
ride,  and  down  goes  some  account  of  that.  The 
letter  proceeds  from  one  thing  to  another  until 
the  end.  On  signing  it,  and  reading  it  over, 
the  writer  discovers  the  reference  to  buttons, 
and  immediately  adds  a  postscript  proudly  de- 
tailing how  he  mended  the  coat  with  shoe-thread 
and  a  darning-needle.  The  composition,  so 
far  as  it  treated  the  case  of  the  buttons,  is  now 
completed  ;  nothing  essential  has  been  left  out, 
nothing  unessential  put  in.  There  is  unity,  in 
the  same  sense  that  a  man  has  unity  when  all 


ORDER   OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE     53 

his  parts  have  been  collected  after  an  explosion, 
but  the  composition,  so  far  as  it  treats  of 
buttons,  is  Incoherent :  matters  closely  related 
in  fact  have  not  been  closely  related  on  the 
paper. 

Postscripts  are  less  objectionable  in  letter- 
writing  than  elsewhere,  and  here  may  even  have 
an  artistic  value.  But  anything  resembling  a 
postscript  obscures  the  thought  of  a  formal  com- 
position. No  matter  how  far  apart  in  time  the 
fragments  of  thought  occurred  in  the  writer's 
mind,  they  must  be  united  in  the  revised  outline 
or  the.  completed  theme. 

To  come  again  to  practical  measures,  we  must 
recognize  in  the  outline  the  best  means  of 
avoiding  Incoherence.  This  is  true  not  so  much 
in  the  first  construction  of  the  outline  as  in  its 
revision.  A  thought  should  be  set  down  when 
first  it  occurs,  for  thoughts  are  precious  and 
evanescent  things.  When  all  that  are  demanded 
by  unity  are  recorded,  and  all  that  are  in- 
jurious to  unity  are  crossed  out,  the  rest  can 
easily  be  rearranged  in  a  coherent  order. 

The  order  of  coherence  will  often  depend  on 
the  principle  of  development  used,  but  certain 
orders  are  in  general  more  coherent  than  others. 

In  simple  narration  the  exact  time-order  is 


54  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

the  most  coherent.  It  is  always  easy  to  over- 
look an  event  and  insert  it  later  than  its  proper 
place.  Even  a  commoner  violation  of  coherence 
is  to  trace  incidents  backward  from  the  result 
they  produced.  It  is  not  safe  to  substitute  the 
order  of  effect  and  causes  unless  the  time  order 
is  followed  in  giving  the  causes.  We  may 
start  with  the  dog  that  caught  the  cat,  but  we 
must  then  go  back  to  the  house  that  Jack  built, 
and  explain  that  malt  was  there  which  attracted 
a  rat,  and  that  therefore  a  cat  was  brought  in 
to  catch  the  rat.  Take  a  better  example. 
Suppose  a  young  man  to  have  rescued  a  girl 
from  drowning.  Some  witness  would  naturally 
tell  first  of  the  exploit  itself  ;  but  then,  instead 
of  saying  that  the  girl  came  up  the  third  time, 
and  before  that  the  second  time,  and  before 
that  the  first  time,  and  that  previously  she  fell 
off  the  dock,  where  she  had  gone  out  too  far, 
but  where  she  had  been  warned  not  to  go,  and 
that  her  friends  were  waiting  for  her  in  the 
carriage,  and  that  they  had  driven  over  from 
the  hotel,  —  why,  a  sane  man  would  start  from 
the  hotel  and  follow  the  actual  progress  of 
events. 

In  description  any  order  is  coherent  which 
places   close  together  objects   that    were   seen 


ORDER    OF  TOPICS  IN    THE   OUTLINE     55 

close  together.  General  impression  followed 
by  details,  or  details  followed  by  general  im- 
pression —  either  order  is  coherent,  though  the 
former  is  the  more  effective.  In  description  by 
contrast  it  is  more  coherent  to  set  general  im- 
pression close  to  general  impression,  and  detail 
next  to  contrasted  detail,  than  to  describe  the 
first  object  as  a  whole  and  in  its  parts,  and  then 
to  do  the  same  for  the  contrasted  object.  The 
branches  of  one  tree  should  be  compared  with 
those  of  another,  the  leaves  of  one  with  those 
of  another,  the  trunk  of  one  with  that  of  another, 
before  the  reader  has  time  to  forget  the  details. 
In  exposition,  the  underlying  explaining 
principle  of  a  group  of  facts  is  sought,  as  when 
we  examine  all  the  typical  phenomena  of  dew, 
and  decide  that  dew  condenses  rather  than  falls. 
Now  in  exposition  we  may  begin  with  the  facts 
and  show  how  they  lead  to  the  principle,  or  we 
may  begin  with  the  principle  and  then  state  the 
facts  which  led  us  to  it.  Either  order  is  easily 
followed,  and  therefore  coherent.  The  danger 
is  that,  in  an  exposition  containing  several 
subordinate  generalizations,  a  fact  may  be 
placed  somewhere  else  than  under  the  particular 
principle  which  explains  it,  or  that  the  facts  may 
be  poorly  arranged  among  themselves.     In?  the 


56  PLANNING    THE   COMPOSITION 

following  examples,  the  second  order  is  more 
easily  followed  than  the  first,  because,  in  the 
second,  each  conclusion  is  closely  linked  to  its 
facts. 

1.  Dew  sometimes  occurs  on  the  under  side  of  boards. 
Dew  occurs  on  the  outside  of  a  cold  pitcher  on  a  warm, 
moist  day.     Dew  does  not  fall.     Dew  condenses. 

2.  Dew  sometimes  occurs  on  the  under  side  of  boards. 
Dew  does  not  fall.  Dew  occurs  on  the  outside  of  a  cold 
pitcher  on  a  warm,  moist  day.     Dew  condenses. 

Exercise  13.  (Oral.')  Rearrange  the  topics 
of  the  following  outlines  so  as  to  improve  the 
coherence  of  the  whole  plan  : 

1.     OUR    ASCENT    OF    HELVELLYN 

Helvellyn  ascended  from  Grasmere,  Wordsworth's 
home. 

Highest  mountain  in  England. 

Commands  wonderful  view  of  lake  country. 

Scene  of  Scott's  poem  on  heroism  of  a  dog. 

The  start. 

Only  the  afternoon  available. 

Warning  that  we  could  not  accomplish  ascent  in 
afternoon. 

Reasons  for  our  having  only  afternoon  ;  late  start  from 
Windermere ;  accident  to  my  wheel. 

Near  appearance  of  mountain. 

A  pass,  over  an  unnoticed  intervening  mountain,  to 
crosst 


ORDER   OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE     57 

Approach  to  pass ;  gorge ;  waterfall. 

Weariness. 

Thirst. 

Worn  out  by  time  foot  of  Helvellyn  reached. 

Descent  to  foot  of  Helvellyn,  and  deep,  black,  lonely 
tarn  there. 

Drinking  deep  from  outlet  of  tarn. 

Rocks  plunging  ahead  of  us  down  into  tarn. 

Appeai'ance  of  tarn  by  daylight. 

Impressiveness  of  it  by  dark  on  our  return. 

Ascent  completed  at  six  o'clock. 

Steepness  of  Helvellyn. 

Astonishing  how  much  our  muscles,  apparently  ex- 
hausted, could  be  compelled  to  do. 

View-  of  lakes  under  setting  sun ;  jewels,  mirrors, 
gleaming  shields. 

Narrow  summit.     Wind  compels  us  to  lie  down. 

Hunger. 

Fresh  codfish  and  pints  of  tea  on  our  return. 

Kapidity  and  violence  of  descent. 

Labor  and  danger  of  crossing  pass  in  dark. 

General  feeling  of  satisfaction. 

2.     THE   VIEW   FROM   THE   HILL 

View  is  through  birches  —  a  view  of  glimpses. 

Glimpses  of  passing  boats. 

The  large  boats. 

The  small  boats. 

The  sailing  craft. 

Glimpses  of  lumbermen  across  river. 

They  load  upon  the  steam  craft. 

General  view  of  scene ;  three  triangles. 

Conifers  on  hill  across  river. 

Contrast  of  conifers  there  with  birches  here.      ^ 


58  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

3.     GIRLS  CONTRASTED  WITH  BOYS  AS  WRITERS 

Girls  the  moi-e  graceful  writers. 

Girls  the  more  imaginative  writers. 

Girls  the  more  graceful  in  everything :  carriage,  ges- 
ture, etc. 

Their  compositions  sound  smoother,  more  flowing,  than 
those  of  boys. 

Their  compositions  are  full  of  pictures  —  sights  and 
sounds. 

Their  compositions  convey  a  sense  of  ease. 

They  do  not  use  such  short,  choppy  sentences  as  boys 
use. 

They  jump  at  conclusions. 

They  do  not  like  scientific  subjects. 

They  often  prefer  to  write  stories. 

They  do  not  much  care  ivhy  some  mountains  have  one 
shape,  some  another,  but  they  remember  w^ell  the  curves 
and  colors  of  the  mountains. 

Some  girls  wa-ite  as  well  as  they  dance. 


^ 


£.  The  Emphatic  Order. — We  have  seen 
that  a  composition  in  which  the  thought  is 
easily  followed  has  coherence,  and  that  certain 
orders  of  development  are  more  coherent  than 
others.  Having  provided  in  an  outline  all  the 
relevant  topics  and  stricken  out  all  the  irrele- 
vant, and  having  arranged  them  in  an  order 
easily  followed,  we  have  next  to  ask  whether 
the  resulting  order  gives  proper  emphasis  to  the 
emphatic  thoughts.  Very  likely  it  does.  The 
beginning  of  a  composition  is  an  emphatic  place, 


ORDER   OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE      59 

and  the  chances  are  that  we  struck  out,  for  unity, 
some  irrelevant  or  unimportant  introduction 
from  that  place.  Again,  the  paragraphs  toward 
the  end  of  a  composition  are  increasingly  em- 
phatic in  position,  the  last  paragraph  of  all 
being  of  all  the  most  emphatic  ;  and  the  chances 
are  that  for  unity  we  cut  away  some  irrelevant 
or  unimportant  ending,  leaving  the  most  em- 
phatic thought  in  the  most  emphatic  place. 
Still  it  is  always  essential  to  examine  an  out- 
line with  regard  to  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
for  the  principle  of  emphasis  requires  us  to  place 
in  these  conspicuous  positions  topics  that  deserve 
to  be  made  conspicuous.  Also,  when  the  sub- 
ject permits,  the  emphatic  order  involves  placing 
the  less  emphatic  topics  early  in  the  compo- 
sition (after  the  emphatic  beginning)  and  the 
more  emphatic  topics  toward  the  end,  in  the 
order  of  climaxy^  that  is,  of  increasing  emphasis. 
Of  course  the  subject  often  admits  but  little 
climax  ;  and  for  that  matter  it  is  possible  to 
try  too  hard  for  emphasis.  Emphasis  is  like 
gesture,  to  be  used  in  moderation,  and  exces- 
sive emphasis  is  like  profanity,  to  be  used  not 
at  all. 

^  Climax  is  Greek  for  ladder^  and  in  rhetoric  refers  to  the 
whole  ascent,  though  in  loose  language  it  means  the  top. 


60  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

Exercise  14.  (OraL}  In  the  following 
outlines,  the  topics  are  all  sufficiently  relevant 
to  the  subject  to  have  escaped  cutting  out  in 
behalf  of  unity ;  also  they  stand  in  a  fairly 
coherent  order  —  they  can  be  followed  easily 
enough.  Still  the  most  important  topics  are 
not  placed  in  those  conspicuous  places,  the 
beginning  and  the  end.  Change  the  order  of 
topics  to  secure  better  emphasis  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  some  degree  of  climax  toward  the 
end.  In  case  of  a  clash  between  the  time  order 
and  the  order  of  emphasis,  see  if  the  outline 
can  practically  be  finished  according  to  time 
order  and  then  closed  by  reverting  again  to  the 
topic  which  was  most  important.  This  method 
is  followed  by  the  poet  Owen  Meredith  when 
he  carries  a  certain  romantic  poem  through  to 
the  end  according  to  the  actual  events  of  an 
evening,  and  then  in  the  last  stanza  reverts  to 
the  bit  of  music  and  the  odor  of  jasmine  that 
led  the  way  to  a  happy  reunion  of  lovers. 

1.     A   LEAKY   KOOF   IN    THE   WOODS 

^  Needed  a  better  hght  for  finishing  my  sketches. 
Made  a  skylight  in  shanty.     Didn't  know  the   dangers. 

^  The  worst  thing  to  make  a  roof  leak  is  an  amateur- 
ish sky  hght.     Explain  why. 


ORDER   OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE     61 

^  Your  precious  sketches  get  soaked.  Narrate 
examples. 

^  A  shanty  often  leaks  in  many  places.  Reason  : 
poor  shingles  with  holes  in  them. 

^  The  water  di'ops  on  your  ammunition.  Result. 
Luckily  it  cannot  injure  fishing  tackle. 

^  It  drops  on  your  nose  or  your  eye  when  you  are 
trying  to  sleep.     Effects  on  health  and  temper. 

2.     DAWN   IK   THE    WOODS 

^  Hermit  thrushes  begin  the  day.  Awaken  me  from 
slumber.  Warblers  gradually  awake.  Then  sleepy  crows 
begin  to  caw. 

^  The  dawn  comes  early.  A  July  morning  begins 
before  three  in  this  latitude.     First  light  faint  and  cold. 

^  The  birds  invisible  and  apparently  stationary.  East 
begins  to  redden.  Fly-catchers  come  out  and  perch  on 
dead  tree.  They  get  view  of  tract  of  air  where  hunting 
lies.  Crows  sail  out  presently,  down  to  river  for  food. 
Black  against  glowing  sky.     Ragged  wings. 

^  Color  spreads.  Sky  aflame.  River  duplicates  it  far 
and  Avide.  Color  turns  to  unbroken  gold.  Sky  of  gold. 
River  of  gold.     Then  sun  rises. 

Tf  But  nothing  can  surpass  beauty  of  early  sky  before 
sunrise.  Finer  display  to  birds  than  that  later  to  men. 
The  last  complete  golden  moment  glorious  beyond  words. 

%  Afterwards,  it  is  true,  gold  fades  away.  Light 
strengthens  and  whitens.  The  dawn  at  five  is  compara- 
tively commonplace.     May  even  cloud  over  and  rain. 

The  importance  of  beginning  and  ending  the 
composition  emphatically,  for  the  sake  of  clear- 
ness, is  so  strongly  felt  in  the  case  of  exposition 
that  good  specimens  of  this  form  of  literature 


62  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

usually  begin  with  a  definite  statement  of 
what  is  to  be  attempted,  and  close  with  a 
recapitulation  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at. 
This  is  peculiarly  true  of  sermons,  lectures,  and 
addresses,  for  the  audience  is  impatient  to  come 
at  the  speaker's  point  of  view,  and  is  likely  to 
forget  his  conclusions  unless  they  are  restated 
at  the  close.  For  an  example  of  a  good  be- 
ginning, take  the  businesslike  opening  of 
Mr.  Theodore  Roosevelt's  address  on  "Wash- 
ington's Forgotten  Maxim."  The  first  sen- 
tence is  this :  "  A  century  has  passed  since 
Washington  wrote,  'To  be  prepared  for  war  is 
the  most  effectual  means  to  promote  peace.'" 
One  of  the  best  examples  of  recapitulation  is 
the  final  chapter  of  Darwin's  famous  book  on 
Earthworms.  1  The  marrow  of  a  book  repre- 
senting many  years  of  study  is  condensed  in 
this  short  summary.  Definite  announcements 
and  recapitulations  are  by  no  means  limited  to 
strictly  expository  composition.  Macaulay  be- 
gins his  History  of  England  with  saying :  "  I 
purpose  to  write  the  history  of  England  from 
the  accession  of  King  James  the  Second  down 
to  a  time  which  is  within  the  memory  of  men 
still  living."  And  he  proceeds  to  outline  the 
whole  of  this  period  in  a  single  introductory 
1  Quoted  in  "  Specimens  of  the  Forms  of  Discourse  "  (Holt). 


ORDER    OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE     63 

paragraph.  His  famous  chapter  on  England  in 
1685  begins  bluntly  and  clearly  as  follows  :  '^I 
intend  in  this  chapter  to  give  a  description  of 
the  state  in  which  England  was  at  the  time  when 
the  crown  passed  from  Charles  the  Second  to 
his  brother."  Stevenson  begins  his  story  of 
Kidnaped  with  a  title-page  of  which  the  head- 
ings sketch  the  entire  plot  in  little;  and  he 
begins  the  sequel,  David  Balfour^  with  three 
pages  summarizing  Kidnaped  for  readers  un- 
familiar with  that  book. 

A  skilful  writer,  then,  makes  sure  that  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  his  composition  are 
both  strong.  He  allows  no  irrelevant  or  tedious 
introduction,  but  usually  plunges  into  the  midst 
of  things,  and  perhaps  states  definitely  what  he 
will  try  to  show.  He  allows  no  tags  or  post- 
scripts at  the  end,  but  stops  when  he  has 
reached  and  said  the  most  important  thing  he 
has  to  say.  In  brief,  he  takes  hold  sharp  and 
he  lets  go  sharp. 

Exercise  15.  {Written.')  Considering  the 
following  passages  as  whole  compositions,  write 
a  brief  introductory  paragraph  for  each,  and  a 
brief  closing  paragraph  of  summary.  Study 
each  carefully  before  attempting  the  introduc- 


64  PLANNING   THE   COMPOSITION 

tion.  The  first  is  a  description  by  contrast 
from  the  Eugenie  Crrandet  of  Balzac,  the  father 
of  the  French  novel.  The  second  is  an  exposi- 
tion by  contrast,  reparagraphed  from  one  of 
Addison's  Spectators.  The  third  is  a  practical 
exposition  reparagraphed  from  a  recent  book 
on  Flame^  Electricity^  and  the  Camera^  by  Mr. 
George  lies. 

1.  He  had  dressed  himself  in  his  most  exquisite  travel- 
ling-costume. At  Tours  he  had  his  chestnut  locks  re- 
curled,  changed  his  linen,  and  donned  a  new  black 
cravat.  A  travelling-coat,  buttoned  half  way,  and  fitting 
his  form  exactly,  exposed  a  waistcoat  of  palm-leaf  cash- 
mere, under  which  was  another  of  white.  His  watch  was 
carelessly  slipped  into  his  vest  pocket,  and  attached  to  a 
buttonhole  by  a  gold  chain.  His  gray  pantaloons  were 
buttoned  at  the  feet,  and  the  seams  embroidered  with 
black  silk ;  his  cane  had  a  carved  gold  head,  and  his 
gloves  were  of  a  delicate  lemon  color.  A  Parisian,  and 
no  one  else,  can  be  thus  arrayed  without  being  ridicu- 
lous; and  it  may  be  added  that  Charles's  fearless  and 
haughty  bearing  well  sustained  and  harmonized  with  his 
folly  and  foppishness. 

And  now,  if  the  reader  would  distinctly  see  the  effect 
that  the  elegance  of  the  traveller  cast  over  the  gray 
shadows  of  this  room  and  the  figures  that  composed  the 
family  picture,  let  him  try  to  depict  to  himself  the  ap- 
pearance of  his  cousins,  the  Cruchots.  All  three  of  them 
took  snuff,  and  all  three  of  them  had  long  since  ceased 
to  be  particular  about  keeping  the  ends  of  their  noses 
wiped,  and  the  frills  of  their  linen  clean.  Their  unstif- 
fened  cravats  were  twined  like  a  cord  about  their  necks, 


OBBEE   OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE     65 

and  their  shirts,  being  seldom  bleached,  were  growing 
yellow  and  dingy. 

2.  Tom  Puzzle  has  read  enough  to  make  him  very  im- 
pertinent; his  knowledge  is  sufficient  to  raise  doubts,  but 
not  to  clear  them.  It  is  pity  that  he  has  so  much  learn- 
ing, or  that  he  has  not  a  great  deal  more.  With  these 
qualifications  Tom  sets  up  for  a  Free-thinker,  finds  a 
great  many  things  to  blame  in  the  constitution  of  his 
country,  and  gives  shrewd  intimations  that  he  does  not 
believe  another  world.  In  short,  Puzzle  is  an  atheist  as 
much  as  his  parts  will  give  him  leave.  He  has  got  about 
half  a  dozen  common-place  topics,  into  which  he  never 
fails  to  turn  the  conversation,  whatever  was  the  occasion 
of  it;  though  the  matter  in  debate  be  about  Doway  or 
Denain,  it  is  ten  to  one  but  half  his  discourse  runs  upon 
the  unreasonableness  of  bigotry  and  priestcraft.  This 
makes  Mr.  Puzzle  the  admiration  of  all  those  who  have 
less  sense  than  himself,  and  the  contempt  of  all  those 
who  have  more. 

There  is  none  in  town  whom  Tom  dreads  so  much 
.  as  my  friend  Will  Dry.  Will,  who  is  acquainted  with 
Tom's  Logic,  when  he  finds  him  running  off  the  question, 
cuts  him  short  with  a  '*What  then?  we  allow  all  this  to 
be  true,  but  what  is  it  to  our  present  purpose?"  I  have 
known  Tom  eloquent  half  an  hour  together,  and  triumph- 
ing, as  he  thought,  in  the  superiority  of  argument,  when 
he  has  been  nonplussed  on  a  sudden  by  Mr.  Dry's  desir- 
ing him  to  tell  the  company  what  it  was  that  he  endeav- 
oured to  prove. 

In  short,  .  .  . 

3.  In  a  field  indefinitely  broader  the  master  of  a  great 
industry — iron-mining,  steel-making,  the  refining  of  oil 
or  sugar  —  is  seated  at  the  centre  of  a  vast  web,  from 
.which  he  observes  and  regulates  a  thousand  subordinates^ 


66  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

and  makes  the  rill  of  gain  that  each  creates  converge 
with  the  utmost  directness  into  one  huge  reservoir.  It 
is  the  telegraph  which  gives  a  thousand  facets  to  the 
eyes  of  such  a  man  as  this,  and  enables  him  to  act  the 
part  of  a  leader  to  an  orchestra  of  stupendous  proportions 
and  diversity. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  often  the  more  compre- 
hensive a  business  becomes  the  simpler  it  grows  in  im- 
portant respects.  If  one  concern  operates  a  mine,  and 
another  works  up  the  iron  from  its  ore  into  bars,  rails, 
and  plates,  there  is  abundant  opportunity  for  misunder- 
standings and  maladjustments  between  the  two.  All 
these  disappear  when  the  two  concerns  unite.  Under  a 
single  chief  a  falling  off  in  the  demand  for  rails  will  be 
immediately  reflected  in  the  reduced  pay-roll  of  the  mine. 
If  a  wire-mill  has  been  included  in  the  combination,  an 
active  market  for  wire  will  lead  at  once  to  a  score  or  a 
hundred  hands  being  brought  into  that  mill  from  some 
other  department  of  the  works.  Between  subdivisions 
of  the  business  there  will  be  complete  harmony,  with  the 
result  that  products  will  be  created  and  distributed  at 
lower  cost  than  before. 

Exercise  16.  (  Written.}  Complete  the  fol- 
lowing passage  by  Huxley  by  writing  as  clear  a 
paragraph  as  you  can,  summarizing  the  princi- 
ples  explained  in  the  selection. 

No  line  can  be  drawn  between  common  knowledge  of 
things  and  scientific  knowledge ;  nor  between  common 
reasoning  and  scientific  reasoning.  In  strictness  all  ac- 
curate knowledge  is  Science ;  and  all  exact  reasoning 
is  scientific  reasoning.  The  method  of  observation  and 
experiment  by  which  such  great  results  are  obtained  in 
sdeuce,  is  identically  the  same  as  that  employe'd  by  every 


ORDER    OF  TOPICS  IN   THE  OUTLINE     67 

one,  every  day  of  his  life,  but  refiued  and  rendered  pre- 
cise. If  a  child  acquires  a  new  toy,  he  observes  its 
characters  and  experiments  upon  its  properties ;  and  we 
are  all  of  us  constantly  making  observations  and  experi- 
ments upon  one  thing  or  another. 

But  those  who  have  never  tried  to  observe  accurately 
will  be  surprised  to  find  how  difficult  a  business  it  is. 
There  is  not  one  person  in  a  hundred  who  can  describe 
the  commonest  occurrence  with  even  an  approach  to  ac- 
curacy. That  is  to  say,  either  he  will  omit  something 
which  did  occur,  and  which  is  of  importance ;  or  he  will 
imply  or  suggest  the  occurrence  of  something  which  he  did 
not  actually  observe,  but  which  he  unconsciously  infers 
must  have  happened.  When  two  truthful  witnesses 
contradict  one  another  in  a  court  of  justice,  it  usually  turns 
out  that  one  or  other,  or  sometimes  both,  are  confounding 
their  inferences  from  what  they  saw  with  that  which  they 
actually  saw.  A  swears  that  B  picked  his  pocket.  It  turns 
out  that  all  that  A  really  knows  is  that  he  felt  a  hand  in  his 
pocket  when  B  was  close  to  him ;  and  that  B  was  not  the 
thief,  but  C,  whom  A  did  not  observe.  Untrained  observ- 
ers mix  up  together  their  inferences  from  what  they  see 
with  that  which  they  actually  see  in  the  most  wonderful 
way ;  and  even  experienced  and  careful  observers  are  in 
constant  danger  of  falling  into  the  same  error. 

Scientific  observation  is  such  as  is  at  once  full,  precise, 
and  free  from  unconscious  inference. 

Experiment  is  the  observation  of  that  which  happens 
when  we  intentionally  bring  natural  objects  together,  or 
separate  them,  or  in  any  way  change  the  conditions  under 
which  they  are  placed.  Scientific  experiment,  there- 
fore, is  scientific  observation  performed  under  accurately 
known  artificial  conditions.  It  is  a  matter  of  common 
observation  that  water  sometimes  freezes.  The  obser- 
vation becomes  scientific  when  we  ascertain  under  what 


b8  PLANNING    THE   COMPOSITION 

exact  conditions  the  change  of  water  into  ice  takes  place. 
The  commonest  experiments  tell  us  that  wood  floats  in 
water.  Scientific  experiment  shows  that,  in  floating,  it 
displaces  its  own  weight  of  the  water. 

Scientific  reasoning  differs  from  ordinary  reasoning 
in  just  the  same  way  as  scientific  observation  and  experi- 
ment differ  from  ordinary  observation  and  experiment  — 
that  is  to  say,  it  strives  to  be  accurate;  and  it  is  just  as 
hard  to  reason  accurately  as  it  is  to  observe  accurately. 

In  scientific  reasoning  general  rules  are  collected  from 
the  observation  of  many  particular  cases ;  and,  when  these 
general  rules  are  established,  conclusions  are  deduced 
from  them,  just  as  in  everyday  life.  If  a  boy  says  that 
*'  marbles  are  hard,"  he  has  drawn  a  conclusion  as  to 
marbles  in  general  from  the  marbles  he  happens  to  have 
seen  and  felt,  and  has  reasoned  in  that  mode  which  is 
technically  termed  induction.  If  he  declines  to  try  to 
break  a  marble  with  his  teeth,  it  is  because  he  consciously, 
or  unconsciously,  performs  the  converse  operation  of 
deduction  from  the  general  rule  "Marbles  are  too 
hard  to  break  with  one's  teeth." 

You  will  learn  more  about  the  process  of  reasoning 
when  you  study  Logic,  which  treats  of  that  subject  in 
full.  At  present  it  is  sufficient  to  know  that  the  laws  of 
nature  are  the  general  rules  respecting  the  behaviour  of 
natural  objects,  which  have  been  collected  from  innu- 
merable observations  and  experiments;  or,  in  other 
words,  that  they  are  inductions  from  those  observations 
and  experiments.  The  practical  and  theoretical  results 
of  science  are  the  products  of  deductive  reasoning  from 
these  general  rules. 

Thus  science  and  common  sense  are  not  opposed,  as 
people  sometimes  fancy  them  to  be,  but  science  is  per- 
fected common  sense.  Scientific  reasoning  is  simply  very 
careful    common    reasoning,    and    common    knowledge 


SCALE  OF  TREATMENT  69 

grows  into  scientific  knowledge  as  it  becomes  more  and 
more  exact  and  complete. 

The  way  to  science  then  lies  through  common  knowl- 
edge; we  must  .  .  . 

Exercise  17.  (Written.)  Take  your  five 
theme  outlines  and  study  them  with  reference 
to  the  principles  of  coherent  order  and  emphatic 
order.  Rearrange  any  topics  that  need  re- 
arranging, and  make  a  new  draft  of  them  all. 

§  4.  Scale  of  Treatment.  —  Many  a  ready 
writer  has  never  learned  the  art  which  every 
professional  writer  must  learn,  that  of  cutting 
his  cloth  to  fit  the  pattern.  When  a  reporter 
has  been  told  to  prepare  an  account  a  certain 
number  of  words  in  length,  he  dares  not  greatly 
exceed  the  limit.  The  office  editor  strikes  out 
all  matters,  no  matter  how  good,  for  which 
room  in  that  particular  issue  is  lacking.  If  the 
subject  is  important  and  must  be  given  a  col- 
umn or  two,  he  expects  the  reporter  to  begin 
his  "  story "  with  a  condensed  account  of  the 
whole  affair,  and  follow  this  with  a  longer,  com- 
pleter account.  He  goes  farther.  He  recog- 
nizes that  some  people  will  lack  time  to  read 
even  the  opening  paragraph,  and  he  himself 
tells  the  story  still  more  briefly  in  a  series.. of 


70  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

head-lines.  A  few  journals,  whose  Avisdom  in 
this  respect  cannot  sufficiently  be  praised,  con- 
dense all  the  news  of  the  day  into  a  single 
column  often  containing  a  hundred  distinct 
items. 

The  reporter,  the  essayist,  or  the  novelist  must 
know  how  many  words  he  writes  to  a  page  of 
manuscript,  and  how  much  printed  space  these 
words  will  cover.  The  student,  too,  should 
learn  what  his  own  average  page  is,  and  should 
learn  to  prepare  any  given  number  of  words 
asked  for. 

If  he  has  mastered  the  subject  of  his  paper,  he 
is  in  a  position  to  enlarge  his  scale  of  treatment 
to  the  natural  limit.  Expansion  in  such  a  case 
is  merely  the  attainment  of  complete  unity. 
But  if  the  natural  limits  of  the  subject  are  soon 
reached,  or  if  the  space  available  is  small,  or  if 
the  reader's  knowledge  of  the  subject  is  already 
large,  then  the  scale  of  treatment  must  be  small. 
Many  subjects  are  not  worth  writing  about  at 
length.  Many  which  at  first  glance  seem  un- 
promising are  found  to  deserve  long  and  minute 
treatment.  Painters  find  one  subject  worth  a 
ten-minute  sketch,  another  a  year's  labor. 
No  small  part  of  the  artist's  skill  lies  in  deter- 
mining the  question  of   what  is  worth  doing. 


SCALE  OF  TREATMENT  71 

The  Dutch  painter  Gerard  Dow  used  to  spend 
infinite  pains  upon  trivial  objects  —  a  broom- 
handle,  for  instance.  He  had  the  great  virtue 
of  thoroughness,  but  thoroughness  is  not  the 
only  virtue. 

Exercise  18.  (Oral.)  Find  out  how  many 
words  there  are  on  a  page  of  some  book,  and 
how  many  on  a  typical  page  of  your  own  man- 
uscript (if  you  have  no  old  themes,  copy  a 
page  from  some  story).  Then  consider  each  of 
the  following  subjects,  and  estimate  seriously 
the  number  of  words  you  think  you  could  write 
on  each  if  granted  plenty  of  time,  but  no  fur- 
ther knowledge  than  you  now  possess. 

1.  The  general  appearance  of  this  room. 

2.  The  appearance  of  this  room  with  all  its  details. 

3.  An  account  of  a  fire  that  I  saw. 

4.  My  experience  in  learning  to  ride  a  wheel. 

5.  Success  in  amateur  photography. 

6.  Birds  of  this  neighborhood, 

7.  What  I  have  learned  about  keeping  well. 

8.  The  history  of  this  town. 

9.  Principles  of  success  in  business. 
10.  A  good  friend  of  mine. 

Exercise  19.  (Oral.)  Which  of  the  follow- 
ing subjects  seems  to  you  to  deserve  the  fullest 
treatment  before  the  general  public  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  at  the  hands  of  a  competent  writer  ? 


72  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

Indicate,  not  the  litting  number  of  words  for 
each,  but  the  relative  space  each  should  have; 
speak  in  arithmetical  terms. 

1.  The  preservation  of  game. 

2.  Treatment  of  juvenile  criminals. 

3.  The  future  of  the  Philippine  Islands. 

4.  The  duties  of  voters. 

5.  Trusts. 

6.  Truthfulness. 

7.  Companionableness. 

Perhaps  less  drill  need  be  given  at  this  point 
in  reducing  the  scale  of  compositions  than 
would  be  needed  if  oral  and  written  summaries 
were  not  a  considerable  part  of  your  work  in 
literature  and  in  other  subjects.  Summary  is 
the  reduction  of  a  long  composition  to  a  very 
small  scale,  the  language  of  the  summarist  being 
substituted  for  the  original  phrasing.  Abridg- 
ment is  a  shortening  of  the  book  or  article  by 
the  omission  of  details,  and  is  made  with  care- 
ful regard  to  the  original  phrasing.  Excepting 
business  letters,  no  kind  of  writing  is  so  likely 
to  be  needed  in  practical  life  as  summary.  The 
principles  of  good  summarizing  are  simple  : 

(1)  Do  not  steal  the  author's  words;  if  you  cannot 
find  equivalents,  use  quotation  marks  about  every  phrase 
utilized.  (2)  Do  not  miss  any  important  thought. 
(3).  Make  your  paragraphs  of  respectable  length,  and  let 


SCALE  OF  TREATMENT  73 

each  represent  a  main  division  of  the  author's  thought, 
no  matter  how  many  paragraphs  he  broke  that  main 
division  into. 

Exercise  20.  (^Oral.)  Reduce  the  following 
description  to  a  single  paragraph  of  fewer  than 
two  hundred  Avords.  Use  this  title,  ''Summary 
of  Poe's  Description  of  a  Cottage." 

The  point  of  view  from  which  I  first  saw  the  valley, 
was  not  altogether,  although  it  was  nearly,  the  best  point 
from  which  to  survey  the  house.  I  will  therefore 
describe  it  as  I  afterwards  saw  it  —  from  a  position  on 
the  stone  wall  at  the  southern  extreme  of  the  amphi- 
theatre. 

The  main  building  was  about  twenty-four  feet  long 
and  sixteen  broad — certainly  not  more.  Its  total  height, 
from  the  ground  to  the  apex  of  the  roof,  could  not  have 
exceeded  eighteen  feet.  To  the  west  end  of  this  struc- 
ture was  attached  one  about  a  third  smaller  in  all  its  pro- 
portions—  the  line  of  its  front  standing  back  about  two 
yards  from  that  of  the  larger  house ;  and  the  line  of  its 
roof,  of  course,  being  considerably  depressed  below  that 
of  the  roof  adjoining.  At  right  angles  to  these  build- 
ings, and  from  the  rear  of  the  main  one —  not  exactly  in 
the  middle  —  extended  a  third  compartment,  very  small 
—  being,  in  general,  one-third  less  than  the  western  wing. 
The  roofs  of  the  two  larger  were  very  steep  —  sweeping 
down  from  the  ridge-beam  with  a  long  concave  curve, 
and  extending  at  least  four  feet  beyond  the  walls  in 
front,  so  as  to  form  the  roofs  of  two  piazzas.  These 
latter  roofs,  of  course,  needed  no  support;  but  as  they 
had  the  air  of  needing  it,  slight  and  perfectly  plain  pil- 
lars were  inserted  at  the  corners  alone.     The  roof  of  the 


74  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

northern  wing  was  merely  an  extension  of  a  portion  of 
the  main  roof.  Between  the  chief  building  and  western 
wing  arose  a  very  tall  and  rather  slender  square  chim- 
ney of  hard  Dutch  bricks,  alternately  black  and  red  —  a 
slight  cornice  of  projecting  bricks  at  the  top.  Over  the 
gables  the  roofs  also  projected  very  much  —  in  the  main 
building  about  four  feet  to  the  east  and  two  to  the  west. 
The  principal  door  was  not  exactly  in  the  main  division, 
being  a  little  to  the  east  —  while  the  two  windows  were 
to  the  west.  These  latter  did  not  extend  to  the  floor, 
but  were  much  longer  and  narrower  than  usual,  —  they 
had  single  shutters  like  doors,  —  the  panes  were  of  loz- 
enge form,  but  quite  large.  The  door  itself  had  its 
upper  half  of  glass,  also  in  lozenge  panes  —  a  movable 
shutter  secured  it  at  night.  The  door  to  the  west  wing 
was  in  its  gable,  and  quite  simple  —  a  single  window 
looked  out  to  the  south.  There  was  no  external  door  to 
the  north  wing,  and  it  also  had  only  one  window  to  the 
east. 

The  blank  wall  of  the  eastern  gable  was  relieved  by 
stairs  (with  a  balustrade)  running  diagonally  across  it  — 
the  ascent  being  from  the  south.  Under  cover  of  the 
widely  projecting  eave  these  steps  gave  access  to  a  door 
leading  into  the  garret,  or  rather  loft — for  it  was  lighted 
only  by  a  single  window  to  the  north,  and  seemed  to 
have  been  intended  as  a  storeroom. 

The  piazzas  of  the  main  building  and  western  wing 
had  no  floors,  as  is  usual ;  but  at  the  doors  and  at  each 
window,  large,  flat,  irregular  slabs  of  granite  lay  em- 
bedded in  the  delicious  turf,  affording  comfortable  foot- 
ing in  all  weather.  Excellent  paths  of  the  same  material 
—  not  nicely  adapted,  but  with  the  velvety  sod  filling 
frequent  intervals  between  the  stones  —  led  hither  and 
thither  from  the  house,  to  a  crystal  spring  about  five 
paces  off,  to  the  road,  or  to  one  or  two  out-houses  that 


SCALE  OF  TBEATMENT  75 

lay  to  the  north,  beyond  the  brook,  and  were  thoroughly 
concealed  by  a  few  locusts  and  catalpas.^ 

Exercise  21.  (^Written.)  After  carefully 
studying  the  following  selection,  by  Jowett, 
the  famous  translator  of  Plato,  write  an  abridg- 
ment of  it  in  about  five  hundred  words.  Before 
writing,  decide  on  the  topic  of  each  paragraph. 
Use  Jowett's  language  as  far  as  possible,  chang- 
ing the  sentence  structure  when  necessar}^ 
Head  your  paper,  "  Abridgment  of  Jowett  on 
Causes  of  Failure  in  College." 

And  now  leaving  these  life  failures,  as  I  may  call 
them,  I  will  ask  why  there  are  so  many  failures  at  the 
University  (it  is  the  privilege  of  the  preacher  to  wander 
from  one  topic  to  another,  in  the  hope  that  he  may  say 
something  which  comes  home  to  the  minds  of  his  hearers 
"be  it  ever  so  homely").  First,  among  the  causes  of 
failure  at  the  University,  I  should  be  inclined  to  place 
"  neglect  of  health."  Young  men  are  seldom  aware  how 
easily  the  brain  may  be  overtasked;  how  delicate  and 
sensitive  this  organ  is  in  many  individuals ;  they  are  apt 
to  think  they  can  do  what  otheis  do;  they  work  the 
mind  and  the  body  at  the  same  time ;  when  they  begin 
to  fail  they  only  increase  the  effort,  and  nothing  can  be 
more  foolish  than  this.  They  do  not  understand  how  to 
manage  themselves,  as  the  phrase  is ;  the  common  rules 
of  diet  and  exercise  are  hardly  thought  of  by  them  :  "  I 
can  work  so  much  better  at  night "  is  the  constant  reply 

^  Landor's  Cottage.  Quoted  in  Specimens  of  the  Forms 
of  Discourse  (Holt) ,  to  illustrate  another  principle. 


76  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

to  the  physician  or  elder  friend  who  remonstrates ;  and 
they  are  apt  to  be  assured  that  no  practice  which  is  pleas- 
ant to  them  can  ever  be  injurious  to  health.  They  find 
the  memory  fail,  the  head  no  longer  clear ;  the  interest 
in  study  flags;  and  they  attribute  these  symptoms  to 
some  mysterious  cause  with  which  they  have  nothing  to 
do.  Will  they  hear  the  words  of  the  Apostle?  "He 
that  striveth  for  masteries  is  temperate  in  all  things": 
yet  it  is  a  more  subtle  kind  of  training  than  that  of  the 
athlete,  in  which  they  must  exercise  themselves,  a  train- 
ing which  regulates  and  strengthens  body  and  mind  at 
once.  Again,  let  them  listen  to  the  words  of  St.  Paul, 
"  Wherefore,  whether  we  eat  or  drink,  let  us  do  all  to  the 
glory  of  God."  The  care  of  his  own  health  and  morals 
is  the  greatest  trust  which  is  committed  to  a  young  man ; 
and  often  and  often  the  loss  of  ability,  the  degeneracy  of 
character,  the  want  of  self-control,  is  due  to  his  neglect  of 
them. 

There  are  other  ways  in  which  this  want  of  self-knowl- 
edge shows  itself.  Many  men  have  serious  intellectual 
defects  which  they  never  attempt  to  cure,  and  therefore 
carry  them  into  life  instead  of  leaving  them  behind  at 
school  or  college.  Let  me  take  for  example  one  such 
defect — inaccuracy.  A  student  cannot  write  a  few  sen- 
tences of  Latin  or  Greek,  he  cannot  get  through  a  simple 
sum  of  arithmetic,  without  making  a  slip  at  some  stage 
of  the  process,  because  he  loses  his  attention.  Year  after 
year  he  goes  on  indulging  this  slovenly  habit  of  mind. 
The  remonstrances  of  teachers  are  of  no  avail.  He  will 
not  take  the  pains  to  be  cured.  The  inaccurate,  desultory 
knowledge  of  many  things  is  more  acceptable  to  his  mind  ■ 
than  the  accurate  knowledge  of  a  few,  and  so  he  grows  up 
and  goes  into  life  unfit  for  any  intellectual  calling,  unfit 
for  any  business  or  profession.  Then  again  there  is 
another  kind  of  inaccuracy  which  consists  in  ignorance 


SCALE  OF  TREATMENT  77 

of  the  first  principles  or  beginnings  of  things  ;  when  the 
student  has  to  go  back,  not  without  difficulty,  for  there  is 
always  a  painfulness  and  awkwardness  in  learning  last 
what  ought  to  have  been  learned  first.  We  all  know 
what  is  meant  by  a  man  being  "a  bad  scholar,"  which  to 
one  who  has  studied  Latin  and  Greek  for  ten  or  more 
years  of  his  life  is  justly  held  to  be  a  reproach.  And 
there  are  bad  scholars,  not  only  among  students  of  Latin 
and  Greek,  but  in  every  department  of  knowledge  —  in 
Mathematics  as  well  as  in  Classics,  in  Natural  Science  as 
well  as  in  Literature,  in  Law  as  well  as  in  History  ;  there 
are  students  who  have  no  power  of  thinking,  no  clear 
recollection  of  what  they  have  read,  no  exact  perception 
of  the  meaning  of  words. 

There  is  another  intellectual  defect  very  common  in 
youth,  yet  also  curable,  if  not  always  by  ourselves,  at  any 
rate  by  the  help  of  others  —  "bad  taste"  —  which  takes 
many  forms  both  in  speaking  and  writing :  when  a  per- 
son talks  about  himself,  when  he  affects  a  style  of  language 
unsuited  to  him,  or  to  his  age  and  position,  when  he 
discourses  authoritatively  to  his  elders,  when  he  is  always 
asking  questions,  when  his  words  grate  upon  the  feelings 
of  well-bred  and  sensible  men  and  women,  then  he  is 
guilty  of  bad  taste.  Egotism  or  conceit  is  often  the  source 
of  this  bad  taste  in  conversation  ;  it  may  sometimes  arise 
only  from  simplicity  and  ignorance  of  the  world.  There 
are  natures  who  are  always  dreaming  of  full  theatres,  of 
audiences  hanging  on  their  lips,  who  would  like  to  receive 
for  all  their  actions  the  accompanying  meed  of  approba- 
tion. A  young  person  is  about  to  make  a  speech — it  is 
one  of  the  most  important  things  that  he  can  do  in  his 
life  (and  one  of  the  most  trying)  — when  many  persons 
are  listening  to  his  words  and  he  a  weak  swimmer  far  out 
to  sea.  He  has  prepared  what  he  is  going  to  say,  tricked 
out  his  oration  with  metaphors  and  figures  of  speech  ;  he 


78  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

has  seen  himself  speaking,  not  exactly  in  the  looking- 
glass,  but  in  the  glass  of  his  own  mind ;  and  lo !  the  result 
is  a  miserable  failure.  He  has  mistaken  his  own  powers, 
he  has  struck  a  wrong  note,  pitched  his  speech  in  a  false 
key.  What  can  be  more  humiliating?  Yet,  perhaps,  it 
is  also  the  very  best  lesson  which  he  has  ever  had  in  life. 
•Let  him  try  again —  (there  was  one  who  said  that  he  had 
tried  at  many  things,  and  had  always  succeeded  at  last). 
Let  him  try  again,  and  not  allow  himself  by  a  little 
innocent  merriment  to  be  deprived  of  one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  useful  accomplishments  which  any  man  can 
possess  —  the  power  of  addressing  an  audience. 

There  is  another  kind  of  bad  taste  which  is  displayed, 
not  in  manners  nor  in  speech,  but  in  writing. 

As  persons  have  a  difficulty  in  knowing  their  own 
characters,  so  has  a  writer  in  judging  of  his  own  composi- 
tions. AVritings  are  like  children,  whom  a  parent  can 
never  regard  in  the  same  impartial  manner  in  which  they 
are  viewed  by  strangers.  We  too  easily  grow  fond  of 
them.  There  are  many  faults  which  are  apt  to  beset  men 
when  they  take  a  pen  in  their  hands.  They  attempt  fine 
writing,  which  of  all  kinds  of  writing  is  the  worst ;  they 
lose  the  sense  of  proportion ;  they  deem  anything  which 
they  happen  to  know  relevant  to  the  subject  in  hand. 
They  pay  little  or  no  attention  to  the  most  important 
of  all  principles  of  composition  —  "logical  connection." 
They  sometimes  imitate  the  language  of  famous  writers, 
such  as  Lord  Macaulay  or  Carlyle,  and  with  a  ludicrous 
result,  because  they  cease  to  be  themselves,  and  the 
attempt,  even  if  it  were  worth  making,  cannot  be  sus- 
tained. It  was  excellent  advice  that  was  once  given  to  a 
young  writer,  "  Always  to  blot  the  finest  passages  of  his 
own  writings ; "  and  any  one  of  us  will  do  well  to  regard 
with  suspicion  any  simile  or  brilliant  figure  of  speech 
which  impairs  the  connection  or  disturbs  the  proportion 


SCALE  OF  TREATMENT  79 

of  the  whole.  For  in  the  whole  is  contained  the  real 
excellence  of  a  writing  —  in  the  paragraph,  not  in  the 
sentence ;  in  the  chapter,  not  in  the  paragraph ;  in  the 
book,  rather  than  in  the  chapter.  And  the  character  of 
the  writer  dimly  seen  may  be  often  greater  than  the  book 
which  he  has  written. 

Yet  one  more  cause  of  failure  in  our  lives  here  may  be 
briefly  spoken  of  —  the  want  of  method  or  order.  Men 
do  not  consider  sufficiently,  not  merely  what  is  suited  to 
the  generality,  but  what  is  suited  to  themselves  individu- 
ally. They  have  different  gifts,  and  therefore  their 
studies  should  take  a  different  course.  One  man  is  cap- 
able of  continuous  thought  and  reading,  while  another 
has  not  the  full  use  of  his  faculties  for  more  than  an  hour 
or  two  at  a  time.  It  is  clear  that  persons  so  differently 
constituted  should  proceed  on  a  different  plan.  Again, 
one  man  is  gifted  with  powers  of  memory  and  acquisition, 
another  with  thought  and  reflection ;  it  is  equally  clear 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  corresponding  difference  in  the 
branches  of  study  to  which  they  devote  themselves. 
Things  are  done  in  half  the  time  and  with  half  the  toil 
when  they  are  done  upon  a  well-considered  system  — 
when  there  is  no  waste,  and  nothing  has  to  be  unlearned. 
As  mechanical  forces  pressed  into  the  service  of  man 
increase  a  hundredfold  more  and  more  his  bodily  strength, 
so  does  the  use  of  method,  —  of  all  the  methods  which 
science  has  already  invented  (for  as  actions  are  constantly 
passing  into  habits,  so  is  science  always  being  converted 
into  method)  —  of  all  the  methods  which  an  individual 
can  devise  for  himself,  enlarge  and  extend  the  mind. 
And  yet  how  rarely  does  any  one  ever  make  a  plan  of 
study  for  himself  —  or  a  plan  of  his  own  life. 

Let  me  illustrate  the  subject  of  which  I  am  speaking 
from  the  sphere  of  business.  Suppose  a  person  of  ability 
to  be  engaged  in  the  management  of  a  great  institution 


80  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

—  such  as  a  public  school,  or  a  manufactory  —  will  not 
his  first  aim  be  to  organize  such  an  institution  in  the  fit- 
test manner?  He  will  consider  how  the  work  which  he 
has  to  do  will  be  carried  on  in  the  shortest  time,  at  the 
least  cost  and  with  the  smallest  expenditui-e  of  labor. 
Pie  will  see  his  own  objects  clearly,  and  from  time  to 
time  he  will  apply  proper  methods  of  comparison  and 
examination  which  will  enable  him  to  discover  whether 
they  are  being  carried  out.  He  will  not  devote  himself 
to  small  matters  which  can  be  done  by  others.  He  will 
know  whom  to  trust;  he  will  seize  upon  the  main  points, 
and  above  all  he  will  avoid  waste. 

Now  there  may  be  a  waste  in  study  as  well  as  in  busi- 
ness ;  such  a  waste,  for  example,  is  the  idleness  of  read- 
ing when  we  sit  in  an  armchair  by  the  fire  and  receive 
passively  the  impression  of  books  without  thought,  with- 
out judgment,  without  any  eifort  of  "  what  we  are  pleased 
to  call  '  our  minds.'  "  We  may  learn  Latin  and  Greek  in 
such  a  manner  that  we  never  acquire  any  real  sense  of 
the  meaning  of  words  or  constructions,  but  only  remem- 
ber how  they  are  to  be  translated  in  a  particular  passage. 
Can  this  be  called  education?  So  we  may  learn  history 
in  such  a  fashion  that  we  only  recollect  dates  and  facts 
and  have  no  sense  of  the  laws  which  pervade  it,  or  in- 
terest in  the  human  beings  who  are  the  actors  in  it:  Is 
not  this  again  a  waste  of  time?  Lastly,  in  philosophy, 
that  study  which  has  so  great  an  interest  for  us  at  a 
certain  time  of  life,  which  makes  a  sort  of  epoch  in  the 
mental  history  of  many,  from  which  we  are  likely  to  expe- 
rience the  greatest  good  and  the  greatest  harm  ;  in  philos- 
ophy we  ma}'"  go  on  putting  words  in  the  place  of  things, 
unlearning  instead  of  learning,  losing  definiteness  and 
clearness  in  the  extent  of  the  prospect  opening  upon  us, 
until  we  are  fairly  overmastered  by  it,  seeming  to  have 
acquired  new  powers  of  thought  so  vast  that  they  prevent 


PBOPOBTION  OF  PARTS  IN   THE  THEME      81 

us  from  thinking  for  ourselves,  or  expressing  ourselves 
like  other  men  :  "  And  this  also  is  vanity."^ 

Exercise  22.  (^Written.}  Take  your  five 
theme  outlines  and  study  them  with  reference 
to  the  scale  of  treatment.  Write  down  at  the 
head  of  each  outline  the  total  number  of  words 
which,  in  your  opinion,  the  completed  theme 
should  have.  After  consultation  with  the  in- 
structor you  may  be  convinced  that  your  scale 
is  either  too  large  or  too  small. 

§  5.  Proportion  of  Parts  in  the  Theme.  — By  pro- 
portion of  parts  is  meant  relative  scale  of  parts, 
so  that  this  section  merely  applies  the  topic  of 
the  preceding  section  to  the  main  divisions, 
or  the  paragraphs,  of  the  whole  composition. 
Every  division  should  ordinarily  have  bulk 
according  to  its  importance  as  a  part.^  A  scale 
of  treatment  which  would  be  appropriate  to  a 
subject  considered  by  itself  may  be  very  inap- 
propriate to  that  subject  when  introduced  for 
some  subordinate  purpose  in  a  long  theme. 

1  College  Sermons  (Macmillan).  Quoted  in  Specimens 
of  the  Form,s  of  Discourse  (Holt),  to  illustrate  another 
principle. 

2  There  are  a  very  few  exceptions  to  this  rule ;  for  two 
examples,  see  pp.  150-151,  where  a  short  paragraph  is  intro- 
duced by  a  special  declaration  of  its  importance. 


82  PLANNING    THE   COMPOSITION 

A  long  introduction  injures  not  only  emphasis 
but  the  proportion  of  parts.  It  is  human  nature 
to  begin  any  undertaking  on  too  big  a  scale,  and 
in  a  theme  all  the  earlier  topics  are  likely  to 
receive  more  than  their  share  of  attention. 
There  is  sometimes  an  excuse  for  this,  as  when 
the  pleasure  of  a  camping  trip  turns  out  to  have 
resided  chiefly  in  the  great  expectations  and  the 
elaborate  preparation.  But  even  when  some- 
thing really  fine  and  wonderful  occurs  on  a  camp- 
ing trip  —  as  for  instance  the  shooting  of  a 
large,  hungry  bear,  the  amateur's  account  of  the 
various  stages — (1)  preparation,  (2)  journey, 
(3)  pitching  camp,  (4)  fishing,  (5)  shooting 
bear — is  likely  to  show  the  following  proportions : 
1  2  3  4       5 


It  is  not  always  the  apparent  size  of  a  para- 
graph topic  which  makes  it  worth  writing  on. 
Huxley,  in  one  of  his  beautiful  expositions,  de- 
votes three  pages  to  describing  the  cross-section 
of  a  horse,  and  then  two  pages  to  the  micro- 
scopic structure  of  its  living  tissue.  He  goes 
on  to  show  that  all  animals  approach  one  pat- 
tern in  general  structure,  and  in  the  last  analy- 
sis are  apparently  of  identical  structure.     The 


PROPORTION   OF  PARTS  IN   THE   THEME       83 

microscopic  cell  is  of  as  much  importance  in 
this  discussion  as  the  structure  millions  of 
times  larger;  and  so  Huxley  thinks  it  worthy 
of  about  as  much  space,  and  gives  it  a  good- 
sized  illustration. 

Suppose  we  wish  to  understand  all  about  the  horse. 
Our  first  object  must  be  to  study  the  structure  of  the 
animal.  The  whole  of  his  body  is  enclosed  within  a 
hide,  a  skin  covered  with  hair ;  and  if  that  hide  or  skin 
be  taken  off,  we  find  a  great  mass  of  flesh,  or  what  is 
technically  called  muscle,  being  the  substance  which  by 
its  power  of  contraction  enables  the  animal  to  move. 
These  muscles  move  the  hard  parts  one  upon  the  other, 
and  so  give  that  strength  and  power  of  motion  which 
renders  the  horse  so  useful  to  us  in  the  performance  of 
those  services  in  which  we  employ  him. 

And  then,  on  separating  and  removing  the  whole  of 
thi^  skin  and  flesh,  you  have  a  great  series  of  bones,  hard 
structures,  bound  together  with  ligaments,  and  forming 
the  skeleton  which  is  represented  here. 

In  that  skeleton  there  are  a  number  of  parts  to  be  rec- 
ognised. The  long  series  of  bones,  beginning  from  the 
skull  and  ending  in  the  tail,  is  called  the  spine,  and  those 
in  front  are  the  ribs ;  and  then  there  are  two  pairs  of 
limbs,  one  before  and  one  behind ;  and  these  are  what 
we  all  know  as  the  fore-legs  and  the  hind-legs.  If  we 
pursue  our  researches  into  the  interior  of  this  animal, 
we  find  within  the  framework  of  the  skeleton  a  great 
cavity,  or  rather,  I  should  say,  two  great  cavities,  —  one 
cavity  beginning  in  the  skull  and  running  through  the 
neck  bones,  along  the  spine,  and  ending  in  the  tail,  con- 
taining the  brain  and  the  spinal  marrow,  which  are 
extremely  important  organs.     The  second  great  cavity. 


84 


PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 


commencing  with  the  mouth,  contains  the  gullet,  the 
stomach,  the  long  intestine,  and  all  the  rest  of  those 
internal  apparatus  which  are  essential  for  digestion  ;  and 
then  in  the  same  great  cavity  there  are  lodged  the  heart 
and  all  the  great  vessels  going  from  it;  and,  besides  that 
the  organs  of  respiration  —  the  lungs.  Let  us  now  en- 
deavor to  reduce  this  notion  of  a  horse  that  we  now 
have,  to  some  such  kind  of  simple  expressions  as  can  be 
at  once,  and  without  difficulty,  retained  in  the  mind, 
apart  from  all  minor  details.  If  I  make  a  transverse  sec- 
tion, that  is,  if  I  were  to  saw  a  dead  horse  across,  I 
should  find  that,  if  I  left  out  the  details,  and  supposing 
I  took  my  section  through  the  anterior  region,  and 
through  the  fore-limbs,  I  should  have  here  this  kind  of 

section  of  the  body 
(Fig.  1).  Here  would 
be  the  -upper  part  of 
the  animal  —  that  great 
mass  of  bones  that  we 
spoke  of  as  the  spine 
(a,  Fig.  1).  Here  I 
should  have  the  ali- 
mentary canal  (b,  Fig. 
1).  Here  I  should 
have  the  heart  (c, 
Fig.  1)  ;  and  then  you 
see,  there  would  be  a 
kind  of  double  tube, 
the  whole  being  en- 
closed within  the  hide; 
the  spinal  marrow  would  be  placed  in  the  upper  tube 
(a,  Fig.  1),  and  in  the  lower  tube  (d  d,  Fig.  1),  there 
would  be  the  alimentary  canal  (/>),  and  the  heart 
(c)  ;  and  here  I  shall  have  the  legs  proceeding  from 
each    side.      For    simplicity's   sake,   I    represent    them 


Fiff.i. 


PROPORTION   OF  PARTS  IN   THE   THEME       85 

merely  as  stumps  (e  e,  Fig.  1).  Now  that  is  a  horse  — 
as  mathematicians  would  say  —  reduced  to  its  most  sim- 
ple expression.  Carry  that  in  your  minds,  if  you  please, 
as  a  simplified  idea  of  the  structure  of  the  horse.  The 
considerations  which  I  have  now  put  before  you  belong 
to  what  we  technically  call  the  "  Anatomy  "  of  the  horse. 
Now,  suppose  we  go  to  work  upon  these  several  parts,  — 
flesh  and  hair,  and  skin  and  bone,  and  lay  open  these 
various  organs  with  our  scalpels,  and  examine  them  by 
means  of  our  magnifying-glasses,  and  see  what  we  can 
make  of  them.  We  shall  find  that  the  flesh  is  made  up 
of  bundles  of  strong  fibres.  The  brain  and  nerves,  too, 
we  shall  find,  are  made  up  of  fibres,  and  these  queer- 
looking  things  that  are  called  ganglionic  corpuscles.  If 
we  take  a  slice  of  the  bone  and  examine  it,  we  shall  find 
that  it  is  very  like  this  diagram  of  a  section  of  the  bone 
of  an  ostrich,  though  differing,  of  course,  in  some  details  ; 
and  if  we  take  any  part  whatsoever  of  the  tissue,  and 
examine  it,  we  shall  find  it  all  has  a  minute  structure, 
visible  only  under  the  microscope.  All  these  parts  con- 
stitute microscopic  anatomy  or  "  Histology."  These 
parts  are  constantly  being  changed ;  every  part  is  con- 
stantly growing,  decaying,  and  being  replaced  during  the 
life  of  the  animal.  The  tissue  is  constantly  replaced  by 
new  material;  and  if  you  go  back  to  the  young  state 
of  the  tissue  in  the  case  of  muscle,  or  in  the  case  of 
skin,  or  any  of  the  organs  I  have  mentioned,  you  will 
find  that  they  all  come  under  the  same  condition. 
Every  one  of  these  microscopic  filaments  and  fibres  (I 
now  speak  merely  of  the  general  character  of  the  whole 
process) — every  one  of  these  parts  —  could  be  traced 
down  to  some  modification  of  a  tissue  which  can  be 
readily  divided  into  little  particles  of  fleshy  matter,  of 
that  substance  which  is  composed  of  the  chemical  ele- 
ments, carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  and  nitrogen,  having 


86  PLANNING    THE  COMPOSITION 

such  a  shape  as  this  (Fig.  2).  These  particles,  into  which 
all  primitive  tissues  break  up,  are  called  cells.  If  I  were 
to  make  a  section  of  a  piece  of  the  skin  of  my  hand,  I 
should  find  that  it  was  made  up  of  these  cells.  If  I 
examine  the  fibres  which  form  the  various  organs  of  all 
living  animals,  I  should  find  that  all  of  them,  at  one 
time  or  other,  had  been  formed  out  of  a 
substance  consisting  of  similar  elements ; 
so  that  you  see,  just  as  we  reduced  the 
whole  body  in  the  gross  to  that  sort  of 
simple  expression  given  in  Fig.  1,  so  we 
may  reduce  the  whole  of  the  microscopic 
Fiff.2.  structural  elements  to  a  form  of   even 

greater  simplicity;  just  as  the  plan  of 
the  whole  body  may  be  so  represented  in  a  sense  (Fig.  1), 
so  the  primary  structure  of  every  tissue  may  be  repre- 
sented by  a  mass  of  cells  (Fig.  2).^ 

In  this  exposition  of  what  Huxley  called  the 
architecture  of  the  horse,  it  is  to  be  seen  that 
the  scale  of  treatment  should  depend  upon 
the  actual  importance  of  the  subject  for  the 
writer's  purpose  ;  not  upon  its  physical  size,  and 
not  upon  its  importance  or  unimportance  for 
another  purpose.  This  seems  simple  enough, 
but  the  temptation  to  violate  the  principle 
assails  everyone.  We  like  to  write  at 
length  on  some  part  of  our  subject,  not  be- 
cause that  part  is  important,  but  because  we 
want  to  display  our  knowledge;  or  we  shirk 
1  Darwiniana  (Appleton). 


PROPORTION   OF  PARTS  IN   THE   THEME     87 

another  part  because,  though  it  is  important, 
we  do  not  happen  to  have  at  hand  material 
with  which  to  develop  it  adequately. 

Before  leaving  this  exposition  of  Huxley's, 
we  should  note  how  once  he  reduces  the  scale 
of  a  part  in  order  to  give  the  reader  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  its  topic,  and  so  impress  it  on  the  read- 
er's mind.  He  describes  the  general  structure 
of  the  horse  twice  in  succession.  The  first 
time  he  gives  a  comparatively  full  treatment. 
The  second  time  he  throws  out  every  particular 
that  can  be  spared,  and  reduces  this  notion  of  a 
horse  to  a  cross-section,  so  simple  that  it  cannot 
be  misunderstood  or  forgotten.       .         •  '    n     . 

Exercise  23.  (OmZ.)  After  reading  the 
following  passage,  decide  as  to  how  far  the 
principle  it  affirms  applies  to  the  life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

I  have  been  led  to  dwell  at  some  considerable  length 
on  the  events  and  circumstances  of  these  earlier  years  — 
trivial  though  some  of  them  may  seem  to  be  —  for  more 
than  one  reason.  In  the  first  place,  it  always  appears  to 
me  that  the  experimental  period  of  boyhood  and  youth  — 
the  period  when  so  much  is  attempted  in  a  more  or  less 
serious  way,  and  so  little  actually  done  —  forms  by  far 
the  most  fascinating  portion  of  the  biography  of  any 
man  who  has  left  his  mark  upon  the  world.  The  early 
struggles,  the  repeated  failures,  the  uncertainties,  disap- 


88  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

pointments,  doubts,  the  ofttimes  long  and  wearisome 
searching*  for  the  life-work  which  is  dimly  felt  to  lie 
somewhere  in  readiness  for  the  ready  but  as  yet  unguided 
hand  —  these  things  are  full  of  the  picturesqueness  of 
romance,  and,  while  they  arouse  the  interest  of  all,  possess 
for  the  young,  the  ardent,  and  the  ambitious,  a  world  of 
inspiration  also.  And,  in  the  second  place,  just  as  this 
period  is  the  most  attractive  for  all  readers,  so,  too,  it  is 
beyond  question  the  most  important  for  those  who  desire 
to  study  a  great  mind  in  the  process  of  its  development, 
to  surprise  something  of  the  secret  of  its  power,  and  to 
realize  and  measure  the  subtle  forces  and  influences 
which  played  their  part  in  its  education  and  consolida- 
tion. Beyond  this,  also,  we  have  to  remember  that,  in 
order  to  do  justice  to  the  record  of  any  life,  we  must 
beware  of  being  misled  by  the  desire  to  secure  an  arti- 
ficial balance  among  the  different  divisions  of  our  sketch. 
It  is  often  well  worth  while  to  linger  over  the  earlier 
years,  even  at  the  expense  of  thrusting  into  a  few  para- 
graphs the  actual  accomplishments  of  after-life.  For  the 
period  of  achievement,  no  matter  how  brilliant  that 
achievement  may  be,  is  after  all  only  the  period  of  trans- 
lation into  present  fact  of  the  impulses  and  powers  which, 
even  from  the  cradle,  have  been  gathering  in  silence 
against  the  time  when  the  moment  for  manifestation 
should  arrive.  Hence,  for  this  period  a  brief  outline  is 
often  enough ;  while  the  long  years  of  preparation,  dur- 
ing which  the  nature  is  plastic  and  every  detail  tells, 
require  and  should  properly  receive  a  fuller  treatment  at 
the  biographer's  hands.  —  W.  H.  Hudson:  The  Philos- 
ophy of  Herbert  Spencer. 

Exercise  24.     (Oral.}     Let  the    following 
outline   be   considered   that   of   a  theme   3000 


PROPORTION   OF  PARTS  IN   THE   THEME      89 

words  long.  Assign  to  each  heading  the  num- 
ber of  words  which  it  seems  to  you  to  deserve. 
Note  that  we  are  dealing  with  divisions  too 
long  to  be  called  paragraphs. 

THE   LIFE   OF   LINCOLJN" 

1.  Parentage. 

2.  Childhood. 

3.  Youth. 

4.  Life  as  a  lawyer  and  congressman. 

5.  Life  as  President. 

Exercise  25.  (  Oral, )  Examine  the  follow- 
ing accounts  and  saj  whether  the  authors  have 
proportioned  the  parts  of  them  well.  These 
accounts  are  not  so  long  but  that  the  main 
stages  have  been  marked  by  indention.  l^ 

1.  It  was  a  hard  life,  this  sledge-travelling  in  the  far 
north.  For  eleven  successive  days  we  had  continuous 
temperatures  ranging  from  forty  to  forty-eight  below 
zero.  The  winds  were  worse  than  the  cold.  One  needs 
all  his  vitality,  all  his  endurance  and  resolution,  to  work 
with  might  aud  maiu  in  the  rough  ice  throughout  the 
day  and  then  sleep  at  night  in  a  frost-filled  bag,  which  in 
an  hour  or  two  becomes  puddly  and  soggy  from  the 
thawing  produced  by  the  heat  of  the  body.  But  for  my- 
self, I  felt  better  day  by  day,  hardier,  better  able  to  cope 
with  the  work  and  the  exposure.  It  was  glorious  thus 
to  feel  one's  strength,  to  fear  nothing  in  the  way  of  hard- 
ship or  exertion,  to  carry  a  consciousness  of  superiority 


90  PLANNING   THE   COMPOSITION 

to  all  the  obstacles  which  nature  had  placed  in  our  path. 
I  was  never  happier  than  in  these  hard  days. 

March  20th  had  come,  and  w^e  were  nearing  the  eighty- 
second  parallel  on  the  east  coast  of  Crown  Prince  Rudolph 
Land.  From  this  on  we  should  have  plenty  of  light,  and 
everything  was  going  well.  We'  had  made  the  expected 
rate  of  travel.  Our  loads  were  getting  lighter  and  more 
easily  handled.  The  dogs  were  better  trained  and  much 
more  serviceable  than  at  the  beginning  of  the  journey. 
Better  still,  ahead  of  us,  glistening  in  the  sun,  we  could 
plainly  see  the  outlines  of  islands  hitherto  unexplored 
and  unknown.  Eager  indeed  were  we  to  get  to  them, 
and  beyond  them  out  upon  the  great  Arctic  Sea,  to  84^, 
87°,  88°,  —  and  even  90°  did  not  seem  wholly  impos- 
sible in  case  we  were  willing  to  take  a  little  risk  about 
ever  getting  back  again. 

But  pride  goeth  before  a  fall.  On  this  very  morning 
which  marked  the  end  of  the  Arctic  night  and  the  dawn 
of  the  brighter  day,  a  little  accident  happened.  It  was  a 
trivial  thing  in  itself,  tremendous  in  its  consequences. 
My  sledge,  carrying  500  pounds  of  weight,  had  stuck  in  a 
rough  place.  As  usual,  I  called  to  the  dogs  and  threw 
my  weight  into  the  harness.  A  lunge  forward,  and  dow^n 
into  a  little  crack  in  the  ice  —  a  tiny  little  crack  such  as 
we  had  crossed  every  day  by  the  scores  —  went  my  right 
leg.  The  momentum  threw  me  forward  upon  my  face, 
and  my  shin-bone  received  the  full  force  of  the  thrust. 
At  first  I  thought  the  leg  was  broken  in  two  or  three 
places,  so  great  was  the  pain.  For  a  few  moments  I  felt 
faint.  But  w^hen  I  had  picked  myself  up  and  found  that 
I  had  nothing  worse  than  a  bruise  and  sprain,  I  counted 
myself  very  lucky,  and  went  on  my  way  as  contented  as 
if  nothing  had  happened.  Next  morning  of  course  I  was 
sore  and  lame,  and  the  prudent  thing  would  have  been 
to  stop  for  a  week  or  ten  days  and  get  all  right  again. 


PBOPOETION  OF  PARTS  IN   THE  THEME      91 

But  I  kept  going,  the  leg  getting  worse  and  worse,  and  I 
suppose  I  should  have  been  rash  enough  to  go  so  far  that 
I  never  could  have  gotten  back  had  not  something  else 
happened.  Fortunately,  this  other  thing  did  happen, 
and  it  came  down  upon  us  like  a  thief  in  the  night,  in 
the  shape  of  an  ice-pressure  which  acted  just  like  an 
earthquake  under  our  camp  and  destroyed  sledges,  dogs, 
stores,  and  instruments,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and 
came  within  an  ell  of  getting  all  of  us. 

It  is  easy  to  fight.  It  is  glorious  to  struggle.  The 
hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  do  is  to  surrender.  But 
there  was  just  one  course  left  open  for  us,  and  that  was 
a  retreat  to  headquarters  as  speedily  as  possible.  By 
heroic  work,  rapid  progress  was  made;  and  though 
delayed  by  a  three  days'  storm  at  Fort  McKinley,  we 
arrived  at  Harmsworth  House  on  April  9th,  and  to  at 
least  one  of  our  party  the  little  hovel  seemed  a  palace. 
—  Waltb:r  Wellman  :  "  The  Race  for  the  North  Pole." 
See  McClure's  Magazine,  Feb.  1900. 

2.  After  studying  with  great  care  Mr.  Howells' 
Boy's  Town  and  Miss  Larcom's  New  England  Girl- 
hood, I  have  determined  not  to  follow  a  strict  order  of 
time.  For  better,  for  worse,  I  will  throw  in  together  in 
one  chapter  a  set  of  school  memories  which  range  from 
about  1825  for  ten  years.  At  my  own  imprudent  request, 
not  to  say  urgency,  I  was  sent  to  school  with  two  sisters 
and  a  brother,  older  than  I,  when  I  was  reckoned  as 
about  two  years  old.  The  school  was  in  an  old-fashioned 
wooden  house  which  fronted  on  a  little  yard  entered 
from  Summer  Street.  We  went  up  one  flight  of  narrow 
stairs,  and  here  the  northern  room  of  the  two  bedrooms 
of  the  house  was  occupied  by  Miss  Susan  Whitney  for 
her  school,  and  the  southern  room,  which  had  windows 
on  Summer  Street,  by  Miss  Ayres,  of  whom  Miss  Whit- 
ney had  formerly  been  an  assistant.    Miss  Whitney  after- 


^ 


92  PLANNING   THE   COMPOSITION 

wards  educated  more  than  one  generation  of  the  children 
of  Boston  families.  I  supposed  her  to  be  one  of  the 
most  aged,  and  certainly  the  most  learned,  women  of  her 
time.  I  believe  she  was  a  kind-hearted,  intelligent  girl 
of  seventeen,  when  I  first  knew  her.  I  also  supposed  the 
room  to  be  a  large  hall,  though  I  knew  it  was  not  nearly 
so  large  as  our  own  parlors  at  home.  It  may  have  been 
eighteen  feet  square.  The  floor  was  sanded  with  clean 
sand  every  Thursday  and  Saturday  afternoon.  This  w^as 
a  matter  of  practical  importance  to  us,  because  with  the 
sand,  using  our  feet  as  tools,  we  made  sand  pies.  You 
gather  the  sand  with  the  inside  edge  of  either  shoe  from 
a  greater  or  less  distance,  as  the  size  of  the  pie  requires. 
As  you  gain  skill,  the  heap  which  you  make  is  more  and 
more  round.  When  it  is  well  rounded  you  flatten  it  by  a 
careful  pressure  of  one  foot  from  above.  Hence  it  will 
be  seen  that  full  success  depends  on  your  keeping  the 
sole  of  the  shoe  exactly  parallel  wdth  the  plane  of  the 
floor.  If  you  find  you  have  succeeded  when  you  with- 
draw the  shoe,  you  prick  the  pie  with  a  pin  or  a  broom 
splint  provided  for  the  purpose,  pricking  it  in  whatever 
pattern  you  like.  The  skill  of  a  good  piemaker  is  meas- 
ured largely  by  these  patterns.  It  will  readily  be  seen 
that  the  pie  is  better  if  the  sand  is  a  little  moist.  But 
beggars  cannot  be  choosers,  and  while  we  preferred  the 
sand  on  Mondays  and  Fridays,  when  it  was  fresh,  we 
took  it  as  it  came. 

I  dwell  on  this  detail  at  length  because  it  is  one 
instance  as  good  as  a  hundred  of  the  way  in  w^hich  we 
adapted  ourselves  to  the  conditions  of  our  times.  Chil- 
dren now  have  carpets  on  their  kindergarten  floors,  where 
sand  is  unknown;  so  we  have  to  provide  clay  for  them 
to  raolel  with,  and  put  a  heap  of  sand  in  the  back  yard. 
Miss  Whitney  provided  for  the  same  needs  by  a  simpler 
device,  which  I  dare  say  is  as  old  as  King  Alfred. 


PROPORTION  OF  PARTS  IN  THE  THEME     93 

I  cannot  tell  how  we  were  taught  to  read,  for  I  cannot 
remember  the  time  when  I  could  not  read  as  well  as  I 
can  now.  There  was  a  little  spelling-book  called  The 
New  York  Spelling-Book,  printed  by  Mahlon  Day. 
When,  afterwards,  I  came  to  read  about  Mahlon  in  the 
book  of  Ruth,  my  notion  of  him  was  of  a  man  who  had 
the  same  name  as  the  man  who  published  the  spelling- 
book.  My  grandfather  had  made  a  spelling-book  which 
we  had  at  home.  Privately,  I  knew  that,  because  he 
made  it,  it  must  be  better  than  the  book  at  school,  but  I 
was  far  too  proud  to  explain  this  to  Miss  Whitney.  I 
accepted  her  spelling-book  in  the  same  spirit  in  which 
I  have  often  acted  since,  falling  in  with  what  I  saw  was 
the  general  drift,  because  the  matter  was  of  no  great  con- 
sequence. For  reading-books  we  had  Mrs.  Barbauld's 
First  Lessons,  "Come  hither,  Charles,  come  to  mamma"; 
and  we  had  Popular  Lessons,  by  Miss  Robbins,  which 
would  be  a  good  book  to  revive  now,  but  I  have  not 
seen  it  for  sixty  years. 

The  school  must  have  been  a  very  much  "  go-as-you- 
please  "  sort  of  place.  So  far  it  conformed  to  the  highest 
ideals  of  the  best  modern  systems.  But  it  had  rewards 
and  punishments.  I  have  now  a  life  of  William  Tell 
which  was  given  me  as  a  prize  when  I  was  five  years  old. 
By  way  of  showing  what  was  then  thought  fit  reading 
for  boys  of  that  age  I  copy  the  first  sentence  :  "  Friends 
of  liberty,  magnanimous  hearts,  sons  of  sensibility,  ye 
who  know  how  to  die  for  your  independence  and  live 
only  for  your  brethren,  lend  an  ear  to  my  accents. 
Come !  hear  how  one  single  man,  born  in  an  uncivilized 
clime,  in  the  midst  of  a  people  curbed  beneath  the  rods 
of  an  oppressor,  by  his  individual  courage,  raised  this 
people  so  abased,  and  gave  it  a  new  being  "  —  and  so  on 
and  so  on.  My  brother  Nathan  had  Rasselas  for  a  prize, 
and  my  sister  Sarah  had  a  silver  medal,  "  To  the  most 


94  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

amiable,"  which  I  am  sure  she  deserved,  though  the 
competition  extended  to  the  whole  world. 

But  these  were  the  great  prizes.  In  an  old  desk,  of 
which  the  cover  had  been  torn  off,  in  the  closet  at  the 
left  of  the  fireplace,  were  a  number  of  bows  made  of 
yellow,  pink,  and  blue  ribbon.  When  Saturday  came, 
every  child  "  who  had  been  good  "  during  the  w^eek  was 
permitted  to  select  one  of  these  bows,  choosing  his  own 
color,  and  to  have  it  pinned  on  his  clothes  under  his  chin 
to  wear  home.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  been  very 
bad,  he  had  a  black  bow  affixed,  willy  nilly.  I  hardly 
dare  to  soil  this  page  with  the  tale,  but  there  was  an 
awful  story  that  a  boy,  whom  I  will  call  Charles  Waters, 
unpinned  his  black  bow  and  trod  it  in  the  dirt  of  the 
street.  But  I  hasten  to  add,  that  in  that  innocent  com- 
munity no  one  believed  this  dreadful  story.  Indeed,  it 
was  whispered  from  one  to  another,  rather  as  an  index 
of  what  terrible  stories  were  afloat  in  the  world  than 
with  any  feeling  that  it  could  possibly  be  true. 

It  is  certainly  a  little  queer  that  in  after  years  one 
remembers  such  trifles  as  this,  and  forgets  absolutely  the 
weightier  matters  of  the  law;  how  he  learned  to  read 
and  write ;  how  he  fought  with  the  angel  of  vulgar  frac- 
tions and  compelled  him  to  grant  a  blessing ;  how,  in  a 
word,  one  learned  anything  of  importance.  But  so  it  is ; 
and  thus,  as  I  have  said,  I  have  no  memory  of  any  time 
when  I  could  not  read  as  well  as  I  can  now.  —  Hale  :  A 
New  England  Boyhood. 

3.  One  old  question  is  ever  new  to  each  member  of  a 
graduating  class  in  the  last  hours  of  his  college  course : 
"  What  pursuit  shall  I  follow^  in  life?"  The  aim  of  this 
paper  is  to  give  a  few  suggestions  which  may  help  one  in 
finding  the  answer. 

Some  persons  are  by  their  very  make  and  tempera- 
ment so  preeminently  fitted  for  one  pursuit  that  it  never 


PROPORTION  OF  PARTS  IN   THE  THEME      95 

occurs  to  them,  or  to  any  one  else,  that  there  is  any  room 
for  hesitation  in  deciding  what  shall  be  their  calling.  It 
is  a  great  fortune  to  a  irian  to  be  so  constituted  that  he 
falls  to  his  work  in  life  as  naturally  and  as  easily  as  the 
young  bird  takes  to  her  wings.  For  all  his  energies,  his 
studies,  his  experiences  work  toward  the  real  end  of  his 
life. 

What  we  call  the  providential  circumstances  of  some 
men  determine  their  calling  so  plainly  that  there  can  be 
no  doubt  about  the  matter.  A  son,  for  instance,  is  left 
with  the  care  of  a  large  patrimony,  which  he  can  best 
administer.  His  duty  to  mother,  brothers,  and  sisters 
may  be  paramount  to  all  other  duties.  Illustrations 
need  not  be  multiplied. 

These  cases  are  simple.  The  really  difficult  case 
remains  for  consideration.  It  is  that  of  the  man  who 
has  apparently  equal  aptitude  for  different  pursuits,  say 
for  law,  for  teaching,  and  for  journalism,  and  is  shut  up 
to  no  one  of  them  to  the  exclusion  of  the  others.  Some 
men  are  so  versatile  that  they  could  do  any  one  of  tw^o  or 
three  things  equally  well. 

In  determining  the  question  of  aptitude  we  may  fre- 
quently find  help  in  taking  the  opinions  of  judicious 
friends,  men  of  experience  who  will  be  frank  enough  to 
tell  us  the  plain  truth.  There  is  a  strange  propensity  in 
men  to  suppose  that  what  is  their  foible  is  really  their 
forte.  It  is  said  that  General  Scott  believed  to  the  day 
of  his  death  that  his  fame  would  depend  on  his  literary 
productions,  which  nobody  reads,  rather  than  on  his  Mex- 
ican campaigns.  Goethe  apparently  felt  more  pride  in 
his  Essays  on  Color  than  in  his  Egmont  or  Tasso.  Even 
in  the  range  of  college  experience  not  a  few  men  con- 
vince themselves  that  they  are  poets,  while  the  rest  of  the 
college  community  remain  unconvinced.  The  explana- 
tion of  this  self-deception  is  probably  found  in  the  fact 


96  PLANNING   THE  COMPOSITION 

that  we  are  inclined  to  consider  as  our  best  productions 
those  which  have  cost  us  most  toil,  because  we  have  not 
been  working  in  the  direction  of  our  talent.  Let  us  then 
be  prepared  to  hear  the  counsels  of  our  associates  who 
wall  tell  us  true  things,  rather  than  pleasant  things,  vera 
pro  gratis.  The  faithful  wounds  of  a  friend  are  better 
than  the  flatteries  of  a  foe. 

One  who  is  seeking  to  learn  what  his  future  duty  is  to 
be  will  find  help  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  present 
duty.  The  path  opens  as  we  march  on.  It  is  the  young 
man  who  is  busy  that  is  most  in  demand.  It  is  the 
brave  fellow  fighting  in  the  ranks  for  whom  shoulder 
straps  are  waiting.  Go  bravely  at  the  work  w^hich  Provi- 
dence puts  within  your  reach.  Remember  that  fine  say- 
ing of  Carlyle  that  the  best  teacher  for  the  duties  that 
are  dim  to  us  is  the  performance  of  the  duties  which  are 
clear  to  us.  Keep  your  soul  open  in  a  spirit  of  candor 
and  honesty,  ready  to  receive  whatever  may  prove  to  be 
the  divine  command  for  you.  —  President  James  B. 
Angell,  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post. 

Exercise  26.  (OraL)  In  the  following 
theme  three  methods  of  using  fire  for  camp 
cooking  are  described.  The  best  method  re- 
ceives more  space  than  the  other  two  put  to- 
gether. Still  the  proportions  of  the  theme  are 
not  so  good  as  they  should  be.     Why  ? 

WARNING    ADYICE   TO   CAMPERS 

In  camp  there  are  three  ways  of  bringing  your  coffee- 
pot in  contact  with  the  fire.  You  may  hang  it  on  one 
end  of  a  stick,  the  other  end  of  which  is  fastened  in  the 


PROPORTION   OF  PARTS  IN   THE   THEME     97 

ground,  the  middle  of  it  being  supported  on  a  crotched 
upright.     That  is  not  a  very  safe  way. 

Or,  you  may  build  a  stone  oven,  and  place  the  coffee- 
pot on  it.     That  is  not  a  very  safe  way,  either. 

Or,  you  may  go  into  the  w^oods  and  cut  down  two 
small  trees,  preferably  of  hard  wood ;  and  make  two 
heavy  poles  about  six  feet  long  and  six  inches  thick. 
Then  you  build  a  tiny  fire  between  them;  coals  from 
the  camp  fire  are  sufficient.  Over  the  coals  you  place 
your  coffee-pot,  supported  by  the  logs.  The  green  wood 
will  not  burn  up,  but  will  merely  char,  on  the  inner  side. 
A  great  advantage  of  this  method  is  that  two  or  three 
other  little  fires  may  be  built  at  the  same  time  in  the 
same  fireplace ;  so  your  bacon  can  be  fried  and  your 
bread  toasted  w^hile  the  coffee  is  making.  The  logs 
should,  of  course,  be  so  placed  that  the  smoke  will  blow 
away  from  the  cooks. 

Exercise  27.  (Written,}  Take  your  five 
theme  outlines  and  study  them  with  reference 
to  proposed  proportions  of  the  main  divisions, 
writing  opposite  each  main  topic  the  number  of 
words  which,  in  your  best  judgment,  it  de- 
serves. Be  able  to  defend  the  estimate  in 
discussion  —  before  it  has  been  amended  on 
the  advice  of  too  many  people. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  PARAGRAPH  AS   A  PART  AND  AS  A  WHOLE 

§  1.  Unity  of  Thought  in  the  Paragraph. — In  a 
book  a  long  division  of  a  chapter  is  called  a 
section,  and  if  marked  at  all  receives  the  sign 
§,  with  perhaps  a  numeral  also.  The  sections 
are  divided  into  sub-sections  called  para- 
graphs, and  these  are  indicated  by  indention. ^ 
Point  out  the  indentions  on  this  and  the  fol- 
lowing pa^.  In  a  theme-outline  section  marks 
and  numerals  are  very  useful,  and  may  be  per- 
mitted to  stand  in  the  completed  theme  when 
this  is  expository  or  argumentative  in  nature. 

Before  we  can  satisfactorily  settle  any  other 
question,  we  must  ask  what  are  the  logical 
principles  which  govern  the  content  of  para- 
graphs. Then  we  may  inquire  how  these 
fundamental  principles  are  modified  by  con- 
siderations of  length  and  emphasis.  We  are 
not  surprised  to  learn  that,  on  a  smaller  scale, 
the  paragraph  obeys  the  laws  of  unity  and  de- 
velopment obeyed  by  the  theme  and  each  main 
1  In  Ms. ,  indention  should  be  an  inch  deep. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  99 

section.  We  are  by  no  means  always  aware  of 
the  active  presence  of  these  laws,  but  a  con- 
scious appeal  to  them  in  revising  the  outline 
and  the  completed  theme  will  solve  many  a 
problem  of  paragraphing. 

The  unity  of  a  paragraph  may  depend  en- 
tirely upon  the  principle  of  time,  as  in  the  fol- 
lowing narrative  : 

A   THIRTY-MILE    ROW 

There  was  exactly  one  day  before  us  to  do  that  row- 
ing in.  We  might  get  up  that  morning  as  early  as  we 
pleased,  and  we  might  stay  up  that  night  as  late  as  — 
well,  as  we  could.  But  there  were  thirty-two  miles  to 
row,  and  the  rowing  was  to  be  done  by  two  men  fresh 
from  all  the  active  preparation  for  rowing  that  is  af- 
forded by  sitting  in  an  office  for  eleven  months.  There 
was  Don,  of  course  ;  but  Don  was  only  twelve,  and  was 
not  to  be  counted  on  unless  the  two  men  fell  dead  from 
the  thwarts. 

We  got  up  at  four,  and  consumed  a  good  thirty  minutes 
in  eating  and  drinking.  Our  preparations  for  leaving 
were  complete,  excepting  that  the  tent  must  be  taken 
down  and  placed,  with  the  bedding,  aboard  ship. 

.  All  the  forenoon  we  stuck  to  it,  both  men  at  the  oars. 
The  sun  rose  higher  and  higher,  and  our  noses  grew 
redder  and  redder.  But  there  was  hardly  a  minute's 
respite.  We  covered  a  good  fifteen  miles,  as  we  reckoned. 
Little  time  w^as  wasted  for  dinner.  Frank  ate  while  I 
rowed.     Frank  rowed  while  I  ate. 

From  twelve  thirty  to  one  I  rested  and  dozed,  lying  flat 
on  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  and  listening  to  the  monoto- 


100  THE  PABAGBAPH 

nous  rise  and  fall  of  the  oars.     From  one  to  one  thirty- 
Frank  took  my  place  below  and  I  his  on  the  thwart. 

By  one  thirty  we  were  both  at  it  again,  and  we  never 
left  those  hard,  hot  thwarts  till  a  quarter  after  four. 
Our  motions  were  a  good  deal  slower  than  in  the  morn- 
ing. We  got  into  a  sort  of  stupor  which  admitted  no 
thinking;  we  merely  moved  our  wings  like  some  lifeless 
flying  machine. 

From  four  fifteen  to  four  twenty  we  lost  ten  minutes 
in  an  interesting  way.  Don  is  a  very  clever  boy,  but  he 
is,  I  suppose,  the  most  inquisitive  boy  on  earth.  It  seems 
that  Don  was  worried  about  the  exact  location  of  a  leak 
that  certainly  existed  on  the  port  side  of  the  boat,  aft. 
He  leaned  over  the  port  side,  aft,  as  far  as  he  could.  A 
gust  of  wind  off  land,  starboard  side,  did  the  rest.  Don 
could  not  swim.  All  boys  should  learn  to  swim.  Frank 
had  to  go  over  the  side  for  him,  for  the  current  was  swift 
here,  and  presently  emerged  with  a  small  boy  much 
changed  in  general  appearance.  I  got- up  to  them,  and 
Frank  hoisted  the  sneezing  creature  aboard.  All  this, 
.     as  I  said,  wasted  ten  minutes. 

^       The  rest  of   the  time  till  eight  o'clock  Frank  and  I 
'     '^  spelled ''  each  other.     We  dragged  along  after  a  fash- 
ion, saying  little,  but  minded  to  catch  the  CoUingwood 
boat  or  die. 

It  was  eight  o'clock  and  ten  minutes  when  we  reached 
the  wharf.  Frank  was  at  the  oars,  and  I  think  they 
were  moving.  We  started  to  get  up,  but  rising  was 
curiously  slow.  We  sat  still  so  long  that  a  sailor  came 
down  to  see  what  was  wanted.  "Why  don't  ye  get 
out?"  he  at  last  queried.  "Don't  believe  I  can,"  said 
Frank,  and  would  have  blushed  if  his  heart  had  been 
more  active  and  his  skin  less  cooked.  And  the  sailor 
guffawed  and  helped  us  all  out,  one  by  one,  for  Don  was 
as  stiff  with  cold  as  his  elders  with  muscular  waste. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  101 

Although  narrative  is  the  type  of  writing  in 
which  time-divisions  most  abound,  even  here 
they  are  less  frequent  than  might  be  supposed. 
The  place  of  the  action,  the  cause  or  effect  of 
it,  a  stage  of  its  progress,  the  persons  —  these 
interests  oftener  than  the  actual  time  covered 
by  an  event  govern  the  paragraph  unity. 

The  second  principle  of  unity  is  association 
in  space.  In  a  model  paragraph  of  description 
we  usually  find  both  the  general  appearance  of 
the  object  and  some  of  the  details,  if  only  be- 
cause the  general  appearance  usually  demands 
but  one  sentence.  The  following  paragraph 
describes  a  person  according  to  this  method. 

At  this  moment  there  walked  into  the  room,  supporting 
himself  by  a  thick  stick,  a  stout  old  gentleman,  rather 
lame  in  one  leg,  who  was  dressed  in  a  blue  coat,  striped 
waistcoat,  nankeen  breeches  and  gaiters,  and  a  broad- 
brimmed  white  hat  with  the  sides  turned  up  with  green. 
A  very  small-plaited  shirt-frill  stuck  out  from  his  waist- 
coat, and  a  very  long  steel  watch-chain,  with  nothing  but 
a  key  at  the  end,  dangled  loosely  below  it.  The  ends  of 
his  white  neckerchief  were  twisted  into  a  ball  about  the 
size  of  an  orange;  the  variety  of  shapes  into  which 
his  countenance  was  twisted  defy  description.  He  had 
a  manner  of  screwing  his  head  round  on  one  side  when 
he  spoke,  and  looking  out  of  the  corners  of  his  eyes  at  the 
same  time,  which  irresistibly  reminded  the  beholder  of  a 
parrot.  —  Dickens  :  Oliver  Twist. 


102  THE  PABAGBAPH 

Space  unity  often  depends  on  unity  in  the 

point  of  view.     All  those  details  and  no  more 

are  given  which  can  be  seen  from  a  certain  fixed 

point : 

Being  so  far  out  from  the  deck,  I  could  look  at  the 
ship,  as  at  a  separate  vessel;  and  there  rose  up  from 
the  water,  supported  only  by  the  small  black  hull,  a 
pyramid  of  canvas,  spreading  out  far  beyond  the  hull, 
and  towering  up  almost,  as  it  seemed  in  the  indistinct 
night  air,  to  the  clouds.  The  sea  was  as  still  as  an 
inland  lake ;  the  light  trade  wind  was  gently  and  stead- 
ily breathing  from  astern  ;  the  dark  blue  sky  was  studded 
with  the  tropical  stars ;  there  was  no  sound  but  the  rip- 
pling of  the  water  under  the  stem;  and  the  sails  were 
spread  out,  wide  and  high,  the  two  lower  studding-sails 
stretching,  on  each  side,  far  beyond  the  deck;  the  top- 
mast studding-sails,  like  wings  to  the  top-sails ;  the  top- 
gallant studding-sails  spreading  fearlessly  out  above 
them;  still  higher,  the  two  royal  studding-sails,  looking 
like  two  kites  flying  from  the  same  string,  and  highest 
of  all,  the  little  sky-sail,  the  apex  of  the  pyramid,  seem- 
ing actually  to  touch  the  stars,  and  to  be  out  of  reach  of 
human  hand.  So  quiet,  too,  was  the  sea,  and  so  steady 
the  breeze,  that  if  these  sails  had  been  sculptured  marble, 
they  could  not  have  been  more  motionless.  Not  a  ripple 
upon  the  surface  of  the  canvas  ;  not  even  a  quivering  of  the 
extreme  edges  of  the  sail  —  so  perfectly  were  they  dis- 
tended by  the  breeze.  — Dana  :  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast. 

A  third  principle  of  paragraph  unity  is  that 

pf   facts  and  the  generalization  they  support. 

lExplain   how   this    is    true    of    the    following 

paragraphs  : 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  103 

1.  That  farm  bore  every  manner  of  fruit  known  to  the 
climate.  There  were  apples,  a  score  of  varieties,  from 
the  snow  apple  that  burned  among  the  leaves,  and  when 
bitten  revealed  a  flesh  so  white  that  you  kept  biting  it 
lest  the  juice  should  discolor  it,  to  the  great  cold  autumn 
fruits  that  were  resonant  beneath  the  snap  of  your  finger. 
There  were  opulent  pears,  distilling  the  golden  sun  into 
their  bottles.  There  were  plums,  the  kind  that  succeed. 
Grapes  there  were,  and  quinces,  and  peaches, — the  last 
not  so  prolific  as  the  apples,  but  a  very  worthy  fruit. 

2.  A  certain  involuntary  adjustment  assimilates  us, 
you  may  also  observe,  to  that  upon  which  we  look. 
Roses  redden  the  cheeks  of  her  who  stoops  to  gather 
them,  and  buttercups  turn  little  people's  chins  yellow. 
When  we  look  at  a  vast  landscape,  our  chests  expand  as 
if  we  would  enlarge  to  fill  it.  When  we  examine  a 
minute  object,  we  naturally  contract,  not  only  our  fore- 
heads, but  all  our  dimensions.  If  I  see  two  men  wrest- 
ling, I  wrestle  too,  with  my  limbs  and  features.  When 
a  country-fellow  comes  upon  the  stage,  you  will  see 
twenty  faces  in  the  boxes  putting  on  the  bumpkin  ex- 
pression. There  is  no  need  of  multiplying  instances  to 
reach  this  generalization;  every  person  and  thing  we 
look  upon  puts  its  special  mark  upon  us.  If  this  is  re- 
peated often  enough,  we  get  a  permanent  resemblance  to 
it,  or,  at  least,  a  fixed  aspect  which  we  took  from  it. 
Husband  and  wife  come  to  look  alike  at  last,  as  has  often 
been  noticed.  It  is  a  common  saying  of  a  jockey,  that 
he  is  "all  horse'*;  and  I  have  often  fancied  that  milk- 
men get  a  stiff,  upright  carriage,  and  an  angular  move- 
ment of  the  arm,  that  remind  one  of  a  pump  and  the 
working  of  its  handle.  —  Holmes:  The  Professor  at  the 
Breakfast  Table. 

3.  The  baby,  gurgling  and  cooing  in  its  basket,  is  full 
of  latent  forces.     As  life  goes  on,  these  powers  are  exer- 


104  THE  PABAGRAPH 

cised  more  and  more  to  the  flood,  less  and  less  as  the  tide 
ebbs.  Yet  who  is  there  who  dares  to  say  that  when  old 
age  is  reached  there  is  not  as  much  laid  by  in  that  soul 
wrapped  in  its  weary  body  as  there  was  in  the  infant  full 
of  latent  power  ?  We  know  not  where  the  infant's  forces 
came  from,  nor  where  the  dying  man's  energy  goes  to, 
but  if  Nature  teaches  us  anything,  it  teaches  us  that 
forces  such  as  these  are  eternal  in  the  same  sense  that 
matter  is  eternal  and  space  endless.  —  Bolles  :  At  the 
North  of  Bearcamp  Water. 

4.  Thus  even  in  its  aboriginal  uses  fire  in  a  high  degree 
multiplied  the  resources  and  powers  of  man.  Its  heat 
procured  him  a  rich  array  of  benefits :  it  unbarred  a  new 
breadth  of  the  globe  as  he  w^andered  forth  in  search  of 
better  dwelling-places;  it  enlarged  a  dietary  which  be- 
came the  while  more  wholesome  and  appetising ;  it  gave 
him  the  wherewithal  to  become  a  potter  and  glass-maker. 
The  light  w^hich  streamed  from  his  blaze  was  as  generous 
in  blessings  :  it  made  night  as  day ;  it  rendered  habitable 
and  even  cheery  the  caves  which  otherwise  were  dark  and 
perilous  dungeons;  it  served  to  lure  the  fish  and  game 
upon  which  he  subsisted;  it  was  a  means  of  communi- 
cating intelligence  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  a  bonfire 
or  a  pillar  of  smoke.  —  Iles  :  Flame,  Electricity,  and  the 
Camera. 

5.  There  are  two  kinds  of  boys  which  the  town  (and 
when  I  speak  of  the  town  I  mean  the  members  of  all  the 
other  professions  and  lines  of  business  which  for  the  most 
part  live  in  town  or  city)  can  use.  These  kinds  or 
classes  of  boys  are,  first,  the  really  bright,  thinking,  pro- 
gressive boys,  strong  in  health,  vigorous  in  mind,  clear  in 
thought,  energetic  in  action,  honest  in  purpose;  and 
second,  the  young  fellows  who  do  not  like  the  farm,  who 
think  that  fortunes  can  be  easily  made  in  town,  that 
town  life  is  an  easy  life;  who  are  not  ambitious;  .  .  . 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  105 

who  are  born  tired;  .  .  .  who  are  willing  to  be  hitched 
and  unhitched  like  their  father's  horses.  The  town  can 
use  both  these  classes  —  the  first  in  conducting  the  great 
business  enterprises  on  which  depends  the  prosperity  of 
both  city  and  country.  It  can  use  the  second  class  on 
the  streets,  or  in  the  factories  and  offices  where  the  work 
is  done  by  the  day  or  hour  and  but  one  thing  is  to  be 
done,  which  becomes  automatic  after  a  while  so  that  they 
can  almost  fall  asleep  and  keep  on  doing  it.  —  Henry 
Wallace  :  Letters  to  the  Farm  Boy. 

Association  by  cause  and  effect  makes  the 
fourth  principle  of  paragraph  unity.  Usually 
both  cause  and  effect  are  stated  in  the  same 
paragraph,  it  being  a  man's  habit  to  give  his 
reasons  quickly  if  he  has  them  clearly  defined. 
Point  out  the  application  of  the  principle  in 
the  three  paragraphs  following  : 

1.  Perhaps  few  people  have  ever  asked  themselves  why 
they  admire  a  rose  so  much  more  than  all  other  flowers. 
If  they  consider,  they  will  find,  first,  that  red  is,  in  a 
delicately  gradated  state,  the  loveliest  of  all  pure  colors ; 
and  secondly,  that  in  the  rose  there  is  no  shadow,  except 
what  is  composed  of  color.  All  its  shadows  are  fuller  in 
color  than  in  lights,  owing  to  the  translucency  and  re- 
flective power  of  the  leaves.  —  Ruskin  :  Modern  Painters. 

2.  One  reason  that  immigrants  cling  so  closely  to  the 
great  cities  is  that  they  find  there  far  more  opportunity 
to  get  money  for  their  children's  work.  There  is  probably 
no  one  means  of  dispersing  the  disastrously  growing 
colonies  of  our  great  cities  so  simple  and  effective  as  this 
one,  of  depriving  the  children  of  their  immediate  cash 


106  THE  PABAGRAPH 

value.  —  Florence   Kelly,    in   Proceedings   of  Twenty- 
third  National  Conference  of  Charities^  1896,  p.  164. 

3.  When  your  Uncle  Henry  was  a  boy,  he  was  very 
anxious  to  get  through  with  a  great  deal  of  work.  For 
instance,  he  was  anxious  to  be  the  fastest  corn  husker 
and  the  fastest  grain  binder  in  the  neighborhood. 
Unfortunately,  he  formed  the  habit  of  binding  sheaves 
loosely,  and  failed  to  acquire  the  habit  of  getting  all  the 
silk  and  husks  off  the  corn.  The  mice  had  a  picnic  in 
the  corn  that  he  husked.  A  loose  sheaf  when  hauled  in, 
in  harvest,  or  pitched  out  at  threshing  time,  was  instantly 
recognized  as  one  of  "  Henry's  sheaves."  I  tried  hard  to 
correct  this  habit  in  after  years,  but  never  succeeded.  I 
could  bind  tight  enough  as  long  as  I  kept  thinking  about 
it;  but  the  moment  I  began  thinking  about  something 
else,  and  that  was  about  all  the  time,  the  sheaf  bound 
itself  loose.  —  Henry  Wallace  :  Letters  to  the  Farm  Boy. 


/^] 


When  the  statement  of  a  cause  or  an 
effect  involves  much  detail,  or  is  considered  of 
much  relative  importance,  a  cause  is  developed 
in  one  paragraph,  followed  by  an  effect  in  the 
next  : 

Yery  careful  and  learned  inquiry  by  the  New  York 
Zoological  Society  and  by  other  similar  organizations  of 
sportsmen  has  disclosed  the  fact  that  within  the  past 
dozen  years  the  decrease  in  wild  water  fowl  and  in  shore 
birds  has  been  fifty  per  cent !  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind 
by  those  not  in  accord  with  my  sentiments  that  these 
figures  are  arrived  at  by  painstaking  and  intelligent 
computation. 

Now  the  question  properly  follows,  what  has  caused 
this  tremendous  decrease  ?    Not  disease,  not  a  change  of 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  107 

habitat,  not  domestication,  but  shooting.  It  is  true,  of 
course,  that  autumn  shooting  has  had  a  share  in  the  ter- 
rible slaughter  visited  upon  ducks  in  recent  years,  and  is, 
therefore,  somewhat  responsible  for  the  decrease.  But  it 
is  also  true,  as  has  been  proven  more  than  once  and  in 
several  different  directions,  that  game  of  any  kind  shot 
under  reasonable  restriction  in  autumn  or  the  legitimate 
season  can  hold  its  own,  i.e.  the  losses  of  the  autumn  are 
repaired  naturally  in  the  following  spring  breeding  season. 
The  great  decrease  in  wild  fowl  life  is  explained,  there- 
fore, by  there  being  no  respite  from  shooters  in  the 
breeding  season  and  at  a  time  when  all  other  game  birds 
are  exempt  by  law  from  persecution.  —  Caspar  Whitney, 
in  Outing,  June,  1900. 

Several  causes  and  effects  may  be  grouped, 
together  in  one  paragraph  if  they  are  so  linked  \ 
together  that  the  last  effect  can  logically  be      >v 
inferred   from  the  first  cause.      This  may  be         ^^ 
called    syllogistic    paragraph   unity  —  a   syllo-       y^ 
gism  being  a  group  of   three  propositions,  of||  ^ 
which  the  last  must  follow  if  the  first  two  are 
true.     Show  the  syllogistic  unity  of  the  follow- 
ing paragraph  : 

You  know  what  Pericles  said  of  his  son's  dog  Azor. 
"Azor  rules  my  boy,"  said  he.  "My  boy  rules  his 
mother.  His  mother  rules  me.  I  rule  Athens.  Athens 
rules  Greece.  Greece  rules  the  world.  Therefore,  Azor 
is  the  ruler  of  the  world." 


The  fifth  principle  which  dictates  the  thought- 
content  of  a  paragraph  is  that  of  comparison  or 


\^ 


108  THE  PABAGEAPH 

contrast.  Both  events  or  objects  or  principles 
may  be  compared  briefly  in  one  paragraph,  or 
the  first  event,  object,  or  principle  may  stand 
alone  in  one  paragraph,  followed  by  that 
with  which  it  is  compared.  Show  how  this  is 
true  in  regard  to  each  of  the  following  selec- 
tions : 

1.  When  I  gained  the  sonthern  end  of  the  moor-like 
ridge,  two  villages  lay  before  me,  one  on  the  left,  the 
other  on  the  right.  One  was  the  home  of  the  dead,  the 
other  the  toiling-ground  of  the  living.  They  can  see 
each  other,  and  year  by  year  the  village  on  the  hill 
grows  larger,  and  that  in  the  valley  grows  smaller. — 
BoLLES  :  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp  Water. 

2.  Her  features  and  height  and  colouring  w^ere  exactly 
the  same  as  Elfrida's  ;  but  there  the  resemblance  ended, 
as  far  as  an  ordinary  observer  conld  see.  Instead  of 
having  Elfrida's  air  of  finish  and  fashion,  she  was 
plainly,  even  poorly,  dressed ;  in  place  of  Elfrida's  elab- 
orately arranged  coiffure,  Ethel's  hair  was  done  up  any- 
how, in  an  old-fashioned  style,  and  was,  moreover, 
decidedly  untidy.  Unlike  Elfrida's  stately  and  studied 
manner,  Ethel  was  perfectly  natural  and  spontaneous; 
and,  in  short,  Ethel  seemed  a  light-hearted  child  of 
nature,  while  Elfrida  appeared  to  be  a  spoilt  darling  of 
fortune.  —  Ellen  Thorneycroft  Fowler:  A  Double 
Thread. 

3.  There  were  two  varieties  of  trout  in  the  lake, — 
what  it  seems  proper  to  call  silver  trout  and  golden  trout ; 
the  former  were  the  slimmer,  and  seemed  to  keep  apart 
from  the  latter.  Starting  from  the  outlet  and  working 
round  on  the  eastern  side  toward  the  head,  we  invariably 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  109 

caught  these  first.  They  glanced  in  the  snn  like  bars  of 
silver.  Their  sides  and  bellies  were  indeed  as  white  as 
new  silver.  As  we  neared  tlie  head,  and  especially  as  we 
came  near  a  space  occupied  by  some  kind  of  watergrass 
that  grew  in  the  deeper  parfc  of  the  lake,  the  other  vari- 
ety would  begin  to  take  the  hook,  their  bellies  a  bright 
gold  color,  which  became  a  deep  orange  on  their  fins; 
and  as  we  returned  to  the  place  of  departure  with  the 
bottom  of  the  boat  strewn  with  these  bright  forms  inter- 
mingled, it  was  a  sight  not  soon  to  be  forgotten.  It 
pleased  my  eye  so,  that  I  would  fain  linger  over  them, 
arranging  them  in  rows  and  studying  the  various  hues 
and  tints.  They  were  of  nearly  a  uniform  size,  rarely 
one  over  ten  or  under  eight  inches  in  length,  and  it 
seemed  as  if  the  hues  of  all  the  precious  metals  and 
stones  were  reflected  from  their  sides.  The  flesh  was 
deep  salmon-color ;  that  of  brook  trout  is  generally  much 
lighter.  —  Burroughs:  Locusts  and  Wild  Honey. 

4.  Genius  has  an  infinitely  deeper  reverence  for  char- 
acter than  character  can  have  for  genius.  To  be  sure, 
genius  gets  the  world's  praise,  because  its  work  is  a  tan- 
gible product,  to  be  bought,  or  had  for  nothing.  It 
bribes  the  common  voice  to  praise  it  by  presents  of 
speeches,  poems,  statues,  pictui-es,  or  whatever  it  can 
please  with.  Character  evolves  its  best  products  for 
home  consumption ;  but,  mind  you,  it  takes  a  deal  more 
to  feed  a  family  for  thirty  years  than  to  make  a  holiday 
feast  for  our  neighbors  once  or  twice  in  our  lives. — 
Holmes  :    The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

5.  It  would  be  interesting,  did  space  permit,  to  pause 
here  to  consider  the  striking  contrast  presented  by  the 
early  trainings  of  the  two  most  acute  and  original  think- 
ers in  the  domain  of  pure  philosophy  that  England  has 
produced  during  the  present  century  —  I  mean  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch  and  the  late  John  Stuart  Mill.     Mill, 


110  THE  PARAGRAPH 

it  will  be  remembered,  was  also  educated  at  home,  under 
his  father's  immediate  supervision ;  was  also  surrounded 
in  childhood  by  men  of  strong  characters  and  indepen- 
dent thought;  and  early  learned  to  disregard  tradition 
and  to  turn  the  keen  lens  of  criticism  and  analysis  upon 
the  world's  most  cherished  creeds.  But  here  the  analogy 
practically  ends.  Mill's  mind  was  forced  as  in  a  hot- 
house ;  Spencer's  was  allowed  to  develop  in  the  open  air 
and  with  the  least  possible  pressure  from  without.  Mill, 
precocious  in  all  the  learning  of  the  schools,  read  Greek 
and  Latin  at  an  age  when  Spencer  could  scarcely  spell  his 
own  language ;  Mill  was  brought  up  to  regard  the  whole 
vast  system  of  popular  theology  as  a  mere  congeries  of 
idle  and  ridiculous  fables;  while  Spencer,  as  we  have 
seen,  grew  up  in  sympathetic  contact  with  Christianity 
in  two  of  its  most  diverse  forms ;  and,  finally.  Mill  was 
taught  to  look  upon  all  the  problems  of  social  and  politi- 
cal science  as  capable  of  rapid  and  entire  resettlement, 
while  Spencer  early  learned  to  consider  every  possible 
question  on  every  possible  subject  as  open  to  fresh  exam- 
ination and  a  totally  new  answer.  A  comparison  of  the 
childhoods,  early  environments,  and  intellectual  growths 
of  these  two  remarkable  men  would  be  more  than  inter- 
esting —  it  would  be  of  the  utmost  value ;  but  it  would 
take  us  far  too  much  out  of  our  present  way  to  enter 
upon  it  here.  —  W.  H.  Hudson  :  The  Philosophy  of  Her- 
^jr^  Spencer. 
^6.  I  have  always  admired  the  dignity  and  courtesy 
which  these  old  men  showed  to  each  other  in  their  dis- 
cussions, the  one  never  speaking  until  the  other  was 
through;  and  I  have  since  observed  that  gentlemen  of 
the  highest  breeding  and  most  perfect  manners,  wherever 
I  have  found  them,  do  the  same.  The  Squire  used  to 
close  up  his  argument  on  tariff  something  in  this  way :  — 
"  What  is  the  use,  James,  of  importing  a  single  ton  of 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  111 

iron  V  Don't  you  see  that  in  importing  it  from  abroad 
we  are  importing  the  ore,  the  coal,  the  labor,  and  the 
food  that  it  costs  to  support  the  laborer  and  his  teams, 
when  we  have  all  these  raw  materials  lying  around  us 
cheaper  than  any  place  in  the  world?'* 

And  James  would  answer :  ''  Don't  you  know.  Squire, 
that  every  fall  you  have  to  come  to  me  for  w^atermelons 
and  sweet  potatoes  grown  on  my  sandy  bottom,  because  I 
can  grow  them  cheaper  and  better  than  you  can  on  your 
heavy  soil?  Why  not  have  trade  as  free  between  nations 
as  between  states,  and  allow  every  man  to  buy  where  he 
can  buy  the  cheapest,  and  sell  where  he  can  sell  the 
dearest  ?  " 

And  then  they  would  shake  hands,  wish  each  other 
good  night,  and  in  less  than  a  week  have  another  set-to 
and  go  over  the  same,  or  similar,  ground  again. — 
Henry  Wallace:   Letters  to  the  Farm  Boy. 

7.  The  whole  character  of  the  City  has,  since  that 
time,  undergone  a  complete  change.  At  present  the 
bankers,  the  merchants,  and  the  chief  shopkeepers  repair 
thither  on  six  mornings  of  every  week  for  the  transac- 
tion of  business ;  but  they  reside  in  other  quarters  of  the 
metropolis,  or  at  suburban  country-seats  surrounded  by 
shrubberies  and  flower  gardens.  This  revolution  in  pri- 
vate habits  has  produced  a  political  revolution  of  no 
small  importance.  The  City  is  no  longer  regarded  by 
the  wealthiest  traders  with  that  attachment  which  every 
man  naturally  feels  for  his  home.  It  is  no  longer  asso- 
ciated in  their  minds  with  domestic  affections  and  en- 
dearments. The  fireside,  the  nursery,  the  social  table, 
the  quiet  bed  are  not  there.  Lombard  Street  and 
Thread  needle  Street  are  merely  places  where  men  toil 
and  accumulate.  They  go  elsewhere  to  enjoy  and  to 
expend.  On  a  Sunday  or  in  an  evening  after  the  hours 
of  business,  some  courts  and  alleys,  which  a  few  hours 


112  THE  PARAGRAPH 

before  had  been  alive  with  hurrying  feet  and  anxious 
faces,  are  as  silent  as  a  country  churchyard.  The  chiefs 
of  the  mercantile  interest  are  no  longer  citizens.  They 
avoid,  they  almost  contemn,  municipal  honors  and  duties. 
Those  honors  and  duties  are  abandoned  to  men  who, 
though  useful  and  highly  respectable,  seldom  belong  to 
the  princely  commercial  houses  of  which  the  names  are 
held  in  honor  throughout  the  world. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  the  City  was  the  mer- 
chant's residence.  Those  mansions  of  the  great  old 
burghers  which  still  exist  have  been  turned  into  count- 
ing-houses and  warehouses;  but  it  is  evident  that  they 
were  originally  not  inferior  in  magnificence  to  the  dwell- 
ings which  were  then  inhabited  by  the  nobility.  They 
sometimes  stand  in  retired  and  gloomy  courts,  and  are 
accessible  only  by  inconvenient  passages ;  but  their 
dimensions  are  ample  and  their  aspect  stately.  The 
entrances  are  decorated  with  richly  carved  pillars  and 
canopies.  The  staircases  and  landing-places  are  not 
wanting  in  grandeur.  The  floors  are  sometimes  of  wood, 
tessellated  after  the  fashion  of  France.  The  palace  of 
Sir  Robert  Clayton,  in  the  Old  Jewry,  contained  a  superb 
banqueting  room  wainscoted  with  cedar  and  adorned 
with  battles  of  gods  and  giants  in  fresco.  Sir  Dudley 
North  expended  four  thousand  pounds,  a  sum  which 
would  then  have  been  important  to  a  duke,  on  the  rich 
furniture  of  his  reception  rooms  in  Basinghall  Street. 
In  such  abodes,  under  the  last  Stuarts,  the  heads  of  the 
great  firms  lived  splendidly  and  hospitably.  To  their 
dwelling-place  they  were  bound  by  the  strongest  ties  of 
interest  and  affection.  There  they  had  passed  their 
youth,  had  made  their  friendships,  had  courted  their 
wives,  had  seen  their  children  grow  up,  had  laid  the 
remains  of  their  parents  in  the  earth,  and  expected  that 
their  own  remains  would  be  laid.     That  intense  patriot-* 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT 


113 


ism  which  is  peculiar  to  the  members  of  societies  congre- 
gated within  a  narrow  space  was,  in  such  circumstances, 
strongly  developed.  London  was,  to  the  Londoner,  what 
Athens  was  to  the  Athenian  of  the  age  of  Pericles,  what 
Florence  was  to  the  Florentine  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  citizen  was  proud  of  the  grandeur  of  his  city,  punc; 
tilious  about  her  claims  to  respect,  ambitious  of  her 
offices,  and  zealous  for  her  franchises.  —  Macaulay 
History  of  England. 


:'    ) 


One  principle  of  development  rather  than  of 
unity  applies  rather  to  the  paragraph  than  to 
the  section.  It  is  that  of  repetition.  The 
mind  likes  to  turn  a  thing  over  in  different 
lights,  to  be  sure  of  its  own  view,  and  to  make 
the  thing  clear  to  other  minds.  Any  kind  of 
paragraph  or  any  part  of  a  paragraph  may  be 
repeated  in  different  words.  If  an  entire  para- 
graph is  repeated,  the  new  version  has  really 
the  old  principle  of  unity.  Repetition  is  very 
likely  to  occur  when  comparisons  are  being 
made.  Emerson  would  say  the  same  thing 
over  in  several  successive  sentences,  but  with 
different  comparisons,  and  perhaps  would  pro- 
ceed with  a  new  paragraph,  repeating  the  topic 
of  the  preceding,  but  developing  the  thought  in 
ever  changing  figures  of  speech.  Show  how  these 
remarks  apply  to  the  paragraphs  following  : 

1.  In  closing  this  monograph,  I  wish  to  remark  that 
any  life  is  successful,  however  soon  it  may  be  brought  to 

I 


^tk^ 


114  THE  PARAGRAPH 

a  close,  when  the  man  is  consciously  on  the  front  line  of 
duty.  And  again,  no  man  or  woman  can  bring  much  to 
pass  when  feeding  day  by  day  upon  pessimistic  food. 
Hope  is  essential  to  effort.  Effort  soon  ceases  where 
there  is  no  hope.  It  is  a  common  proverb  that  "while 
there  is  life  there  is  hope  " ;  the  converse  is :  hope  giveth 
life,  and  abundance  of  hope  floods  over  many  rocky 
places.  —  General  O.  O.  Howard. 

2.  Artificial  things  are  only  natural  things  shaped  and 
brought  together  or  separated  by  men. 

Although  this  distinction  between  nature  and  art,  be- 
tween natural  and  artificial  things,  is  very  easily  made 
and  very  convenient,  it  is  needful  to  remember  that,  in 
the  long  run,  we  owe  everything  to  nature;  that  even 
those  artificial  objects  which  we  commonly  say  are  made 
by  men  are  only  natural  objects  shaped  and  moved  by 
men ;  and  that,  in  the  sense  of  creating,  that  is  to  say, 
of  causing  something  to  exist  which  did  not  exist  in 
some  other  shape  before,  man  can  make  nothing  what- 
ever. Moreover,  we  must  recollect  that  what  men  do  in 
the  way  of  shaping  and  bringing  together  or  separating 
na.tural  objects  is  done  in  virtue  of  the  powers  which 
they  themselves  possess  as  natural  objects. 

Artificial  things  are,  in  fact,  all  produced  by  the  action 
of  that  part  of  nature  which  we  call  mankind  upon  the  rest. 

We  talk  of  "  making  "  a  box,  and  rightly  enough,  if  we 
mean  only  that  we  have  shaped  the  pieces  of  wood  and 
nailed  them  together ;  but  the  wood  is  a  natural  object 
and  so  is  the  iron  of  the  nails.  A  watch  is  "  made "  of 
the  natural  objects,  gold  and  other  metals,  sand,  soda,, 
rubies,  brought  together,  and  shaped  in  various  ways ;  a 
coat  is  "made"  of  the  natural  object,  wool;  and  a  frock 
of  the  natural  objects,  cotton  or  silk.  Moreover,  the 
men  who  make  all  these  things  are  natural  objects. 

Carpenters,  builders,  shoemakers,  and  all  other  arti- 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  115 

sans  and  artists,  are  persons  who  have  learned  so  much 
of  the  powers  and  properties  of  certain  natural  objects, 
and  of  the  chain  of  causes  and  effects  in  nature,  as  en- 
ables them  to  shape  and  put  together  those  natural 
objects,  so  as  to  make  them  useful  to  man. 

A  carpenter  could  not,  as  we  say,  *'make"  a  chair 
unless  he  knew  something  of  the  properties  and  powers 
of  wood;  a  blacksmith  could  not  "make"  a  horseshoe 
unless  he  knew  that  it  is  a  property  of  iron  to  become 
soft  and  easily  hammered  into  shape  w^hen  it  is  made 
red-hot ;  a  brick  maker  must  know  many  of  the  proper- 
ties of  clay ;  and  a  plumber  could  not  do  his  work  unless 
he  knew  that  lead  has  the  properties  of  softness  and 
flexibility,  and  that  a  moderate  heat  causes  it  to  melt.  — 
Huxley  :  Introductory  Science  Primer. 

3.  1  Thomas  Fuller,  in  his  quaint  way,  had  a  genius 
for  getting  at  the  heart  of  things,  and  never  more  so  than 
in  his  comment  on  sin  as  it  comes  in  the  form  of  temp- 
tation and  as  it  appears  in  the  memory  in  the  form  of 
action.  "Before  I  commit  a  sin,"  wrote  Fuller,  "it 
seems  to  me  so  shallow  that  I  may  wade  through  it 
dryshod  from  any  guiltiness ;  but  when  I  have  committed 
it,  it  often  seems  so  deep  that  I  cannot  escape  without 
drowning."  Much  of  the  old  phraseology  in  which  the 
preachers  endeavored  to  carry  this  truth  home  to  the 
consciousness  of  hearers  or  readers  has  lost  its  force,  but 
the  fact  remains  precisely  what  it  was  in  the  days  when 
the  Puritan  did  not  think  about  sin  as  an  abstraction, 
but  as  an  ever-present  reality.  The  great  preachers  of 
our  time,  like  the  great  preachers  of  all  time,  have  hated 
moral  evil  of  every  sort,  and  have  not  lost  clear  vision  of 

1  This  is  an  example  of  the  isolated  editorial  paragraph  — 
a  religious  editorial  in  this  case  — which  extends  to  a  greater 
length  than  a  paragraph  in  a  theme  should  be  permitted 
to  extend. 


H6  THE  PABAGBAPH 

it  by  reason  of  the  higher  average  of  general  conduct 
and  the  increasing  orderliness  of  society.  There  is  as 
much  moral  peril  in  the  world  as  ever  in  its  history,  and 
that  peril  still  takes  on  all  its  old  forms,  with  many 
new  ones  which  are  even  more  subtle  and  beguiling,  born 
of  the  refinement  of  the  age  and  the  temptations  which 
are  presented  by  a  luxury  which  is  not  a  sin  in  itself,  but 
which  often  weakens  the  fibre  of  the  moral  nature  and 
prepares  for  an  irremediable  catastrophe.  Sin  as  a  fact 
in  individual  life  is  not  diminished  in  force  or  in  signif- 
icance by  scientific  statements  of  its  character,  by 
greater  light  thrown  upon  inheritance  and  environment, 
nor  by  philosophical  explanations  which  seem  to  wear  off 
its  edges  and  make  it  less  monstrous.  It  still  does  pre- 
cisely what  it  has  always  done  —  sears  the  conscience, 
weakens  the  will,  diminishes  the  moral  sensitiveness, 
and  sets  in  process  a  disintegration  of  character  which, 
unless  it  is  arrested,  involves  ultimate  wreckage.  In  this 
age,  when  the  facts  of  sin  seem  to  have  receded  in  the 
background,  it  is  well  to  reread  Dante,  in  order  that,  in 
the  graphic  picturing  of  a  great  literary  artist,  the 
blackness  of  moral  evil  and  the  hideousness  of  the  things 
which  come  out  of  it  and  the  results  it  leaves  behind  it 
may  be  clearly  discerned.  Neither  science  nor  philoso- 
phy nor  the  larger  knowledge  of  modern  times  has 
weakened  the  force  of  moral  law  or  has  taken  from  a 
violation  of  that  law  any  of  those  appalling  effects 
which  Dante  threw  into  such  bold  and  terrifying  relief 
in  his  pictures  of  the  Inferno  and  of  Purgatory.  Lan- 
guage has  changed  and  symbolism  has  changed,  but  the 
law  remains ;  the  ethical  structure  of  the  universe  is  un- 
touched. The  relation  of  man  to  this  invisible  but  inex- 
orable order  has  not  been  modified  ;  he  still  reaps  what  he 
sows,  as  he  did  in  the  days  when  the  exiled  poet  of  Florence 
felt  the  flames  of  hell  beat  on  him.  —  The  Outlook. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  117 

It  must  now  be  pointed  out  that  though  a 
theme  may  be  composed  of  all  kinds  of  para- 
graphs, so  long  as  its  main  divisions  are 
governed  by  one  of  the  five  principles,  the 
same  is  not  so  true  of  paragraphs  considered  as 
wholes.  A  short  paragraph  must  obey  pretty 
closely  one  principle  of  unity.  The  following 
paragraph  does  indeed  combine  the  principles 
of  time  and  space,  narrative  and  description. 
And,  since  the  narrative  is  only  introductory 
to  the  description,  the  unity  is  kept. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  tangles  that  I  discovered  two 
small  woodpeckers  at  work  tapping  upon  the  trunks  of 
two  unhealthy  spruces  spared  by  the  axe.  I  saw  at  a 
glance  that  the  bbds  were  unfamiliar  in  coloring,  and  I 
crawled  in  among  the  top  wood  to  examine  them  more 
closely.  To  whistles,  hooting,  and  squeaks  they  paid  no 
attention,  but  kept  on  hammering  the  trees  until  small 
flakes  of  loose  bark  flew  at  every  blow.  My  crashing 
through  snow  and  branches  startled  one  bird,  but  the 
other  stood  his  ground  "until  I  got  within  about  fifteen 
feet  of  him.  My  glass  brought  out  every  detail  of  his 
plumage.  Upon  his  head  was  a  yellow  cap,  his  throat 
was  snowy  white,  his  sides  were  finely,  delicately  barred 
with  black  and  white,  his  back  was  largely  black,  but 
down  his  spine  ran  a  belt  of  black  and  white  cross- 
lining.  Instead  of  having  four  toes  like  the  downy  and 
other  common  woodpeckers,  this  stranger  from  the  north 
had  but  three  toes.  He  was  the  ladder-backed  wood- 
pecker of  the  great  northern  forests.  —  Bolles  :  At  the 
North  of  Bearcamp  Water, 


118  THE  PABAGBAPH 

Also  the  following  paragraph  succeeds  in  the 
more  difficult  task  of  combining  narrative  and 
generalization.  But  it  succeeds  because  the 
narrative  is  again  subordinated.  The  last 
sentence,  following  all  the  facts,  is  the  real 
topic  of  the  paragraph. 

Speeding  past  the  lakes,  I  stopped  for  a  moment  in 
my  own  orchard  to  lament  the  death  of  an  osprey  which 
I  found  at  the  foot  of  an  apple-tree,  where  some  hunters 
had  left  him.  It  is  fortunate  that  all  animals  have  not 
man's  propensity  for  killing  merely  for  the  sake  of 
killing.  Here  was  a  bird  of  beautiful  plumage,  wonder- 
ful powers  of  sight  and  flight,  measuring  only  ^ve  inches 
less  than  six  feet  from  wing  tip  to  wing  tip,  practically 
harmless,  and  by  no  means  common  in  these  mountains, 
yet  after  being  shot  merely  for  love  of  murder,  his  body 
was  left  where  it  fell,  to  feed  skunks  and  foxes.  Small 
wonder  that  creation  seems  out  of  joint  wherever  man's 
influence  extends.  —  Bolles  :  At  the  North  of  Bear  camp 
Water. 

Only  one  other  principle  of  paragraph  linity 
need  be  considered.  Between  two  main  divi- 
sions of  a  long  theme,  say  fifteen  hundred 
words,  there  may  properly  be  a  transitional 
paragraph.  Sometimes  the  duty  of  a  transi- 
tional paragraph  is  merely  to  announce  a 
general  change  of  topic  in  the  theme;  at 
others  it  is  to  sum  up  the  preceding  section 
and  announce  the  change  of  topic;  at  others  it 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  119 

is  to  announce  the  change  of  topic  and  state 
the  essential  thought  of  the  new  section.  The 
following  examples  will  make  all  this  clear. 

1.  I  reserve  the  answer  for  the  next  chapter,  hav- 
ing still  to  consider  how  the  imagination  may  operate 
in  scientific  exposition,  which  lies  outside  of  practi- 
cal inventions.  —  Hamerton:  Imagination  in  Landscape 
Painting, 

2.  We  have  thus  followed  the  general  course  of  Mr. 
Spencer's  thought  through  what,  in  the  light  of  his 
subsequent  work,  must  be  regarded  as  the  period  of 
experiment  and  preparation.  We  now  turn  from  these 
earlier  writings  to  that  colossal  undertaking  to  wdiich 
the  greater  part  of  the  energies  of  his  after-life  was  to  be 
devoted  —  The  System  of  Synthetic  Philosophy.  — W.  H. 
Hudson  :   The  Philosophy  of  Herbert  Spencer. 

3.  It  was  necessary  that  I  should  put  all  this  very 
strongly  before  you,  because,  otherwise,  you  might  have 
been  led  to  think  differently  of  the  completeness  of  our 
knowledge  by  the  next  facts  I  shall  state  to  you.  —  Hux- 
ley: Darwiniana. 

4.  Take,  again,  another  set  of  very  remarkable  facts, 
—  the  existence  of  what  are  called  rudimentary  organs, 
organs  for  which  we  can  find  no  obvious  use,  in  the  par- 
ticular animal  economy  in  which  they  are  found,  and 
yet  which  are  there.  —  Huxley:  Darwiniana. 

5.  But  let  me  come  to  my  lecture.  I  want  to  divide 
what  I  have  to  say  to  you  about  biographies  into  three 
parts.  I  want  to  speak  to  you  about  the  subjects  of  biog- 
raphies, and  the  writers  of  biographies,  and  the  readers 
of  biographies.  A  life  must  first  be  lived,  and  then  it 
must  be  written,  and  then  it  must  be  read,  before  the 
power  of  a  biography  is  quite  complete.  —  Phillips 
Brooks  :  Biography. 


120  THE  PABAGRAPH 

6.  And  now,  what  is  it  all  for  ?  I  must  not  talk  so 
long  as  I  have  talked  to-night,  about  a  certain  kind  of 
literature,  and  urge  you  to  give  it  a  high  place  in  your 
reading,  without  trying,  before  I  close,  to  gather  up  in 
simple  statement  the  good  results  which  have  come  to 
many,  and  which  will  come  to  you,  from  an  intelligent 
reading  of  biography.  I  mention  four  particulars. — 
Phillips  Brooks  :  Biography. 

Sometimes  (as  already  stated)  the  transitional 
paragraph  gives  not  merely  the  topic  of  the  new 
group  of  paragraphs,  but  their  essence.  It 
becomes  an  advance  summary  of  it  : 

1.  But  what  does  this  attempt  to  construct  a  universal 
history  of  the  globe  imply?  It  implies  that  we  shall  not 
only  have  a  precise  knowledge  of  the  events  which  have 
occurred  at  any  particular  point,  but  that  we  shall  be  able 
to  say  what  events,  at  any  one  spot,  took  place  at  the  same 
time  with  those  at  other  spots.  —  Huxley  :  Darwiniana. 

2.  If,  then,  the  removal  of  the  causes  of  this  spirit  of 
American  liberty  be  for  the  greater  part,  or  rather  en- 
tirely, impracticable ;  if  the  ideas  of  criminal  process  be 
inapplicable  —  or,  if  applicable,  are  in  the  highest  degTee 
inexpedient;  what  way  yet  remains?  No  way  is  open 
but  the  third  and  last, — to  comply  with  the  American 
spirit  as  necessary ;  or,  if  you  please,  to  submit  to  it  as  a 
necessary  evil.  —  Burke  :  On  Conciliation  with  the  Colonies. 

The  foregoing  principles  of  unity  are  often 
violated  by  the  intrusion  of  irrelevant  remarks 
into  the  paragraph.  It  would  be  easy  to  give 
examples  of  this  fault,  but  it  is  better  to  re- 


PARAGRAPH  LENGTB  121 

mind  ourselves  that  it  can  hardly  occur  if  the 
theme  outline  has  been  properly  scrutinized 
with  regard  to  unity.  Of  course,  single 
words  in  a  completed  sentence  may  suggest 
irrelevant  remarks  even  after  the  memoranda 
have  all  been  put  down,  unified,  and  arranged. 
But  the  result  in  such  a  case  is  more  likely  to 
affect  merely  the  sentence,  producing  relative 
clauses  that  have  little  to  do  with  the  subject. 
This  kind  of  digression  we  may  safely  leave 
until  we  discuss  the  sentence  as  a  part  of  the 
paragraph  and  as  a  whole. 

Before  attempting  to  decide  on  the  para- 
graphs of  our  five  themes,  we  shall  do  well  to 
consider  the  question  of  paragraph  length.  As 
soon  as  this  is  done  we  shall  be  ready  to  develop . 
the  outlines  into  complete  themes,  with  reason- 
able divisions  and  subdivisions.  *^ 

§  2.  Paragraph  Length. —  If  indentions  are  to 
do  their  part  in  furthering  the  conveyance  of 
thought,  they  must  not  be  too  far  apart.  The 
mind  and  eye  are  easily  tried,  and  seize  eagerly 
the  opportunity  for  rest  ('and  mental  digestion) 
offered  by  the  white  space  before  a  paragraph. 
Old  Richard  Hooker's  book  on  Ecclesiastical 
Polity^  in  which  every  paragraph  is  a  chapter. 


122  THE  PARAGRAPH 

must  have  confused  even  that  studious  king 
who  declared  it  the  most  profitable  work  a 
prince  could  study.  The  question  is  not,  How 
many  sentences  can  logically  be  put  together  ? 
Hooker's  gigantic  paragraphs  are  logical  enough 
as  paragraphs  go.  It  is  a  question  of  how  much 
the  average  reader  can  take  in  before  he  wishes 
to  pause  and  make  sure  that  he  is  ready  to  pro- 
ceed. The  history  of  our  prose  seems  to  sug- 
gest that  three  hundred  words  are  enough  for 
the  longest  paragraph,  and  that  two  hundred 
words  is  a  better  limit  for  young  writers.^ 

A  main  division  of  a  short  theme  need  not 
exceed  three  hundred  words.  We  may  there- 
fore set  it  down  as  a  safe  principle  that  in  a 
theme  of  not  more  than  one  thousand  words 
each  section  may  be  a  paragraph,  represented 
only  by  indention. 

On  the  other  hand  the  mere  principle  of 
economy  should  prevent  us  from  making  many 
paragraphs  of  one  sentence  each.  The  larger 
the  unit  of  thought  taken  in  at  one  glance,  the 
quicker  the    reading   proceeds,  and  the  firmer 

1  The  instructor  may  be  interested  in  tracing  the  develop- 
ment of  the  paragraph  as  set  forth  in  a  dissertation  on  The 
History  of  the  English  Paragraph,  by  the  present  writer. 
The  work  is  out  of  print,  but  several  hundred  copies  are 
scattered  about  in  college  libraries. 


PARAGRAPH  LENGTH  123 

the  reader's  grasp  of  our  thought.  It  is  sheer 
waste  to  compel  him  to  combine  paragraphs 
that  ought  to  have  appeared  to  his  eye  already 
combined.  Extremely  short  paragraphs  are 
not  to  be  used  freely  for  mere  emphasis.  In 
the  course  of  several  addresses,  Phillips  Brooks 
uses  an  occasional  paragraph  of  one  sentence ; 
but  in  every  case  it  is  either  a  transition,  or  a 
terse  general  summary  enforcing  what  has  pre- 
ceded. Only  four  paragraphs  are  of  the  latter 
type: 

It  is  this  constant  graduation  that  makes  all  the  little 
things  of  life,  manners,  dress,  conversation,  household 
life,  sweet,  pure,  and  satisfying,  full  of  deep  and  end- 
less fascination. 

It  was  a  time  of  good,  strong,  plain  words  —  and  Mil- 
ton was  a  man  of  his  time. 

To  be  able  to  obey  ideas,  to  be  free  from  self- 
consciousness,  to  be  simple  —  these  are  the  secrets  of 
courage. 

I  will  tell  you  the  thing  which  impresses  me  most 
—  the  thing  probably  in  most  our  minds:  it  is  the  ab- 
solute simplicity  of  the  greatest  things. 

We  cannot  deny  the  power  of  these  terse 
sayings,  each  interposed  between  longer  para- 
graphs and  equal  in  force  to  any  of  them. 
But  you  will  agree  that  they  are  not  easy  par- 
agraphs to  imitate.  To  deserve  the  distinction 
of  separate  paragraphing,  a  sentence  not  merely 


124  TH^E  PARAGRAPH 

transitional  must  be  memorable,  worthy  of  dis- 
tinction. "  In  a  chapter  of  Les  MisSrahles^^^ 
says  Professor  Newcomer,  "  Victor  Hugo,  after 
telling  how  the  country  people  had  given  the 
dependent  and  wretched  Cosette  the  sobriquet 
of  'the  lark'  because  she  was  so  little  and  timid 
and  always  up  and  at  work  so  early  in  the 
morning,  concludes  with  a  paragraph  of  singu- 
lar power :  — 

*' '  Only  this  poor  lark  never  sang.' "  ^ 

But  Victor  Hugo,  and  many  a  P'renchman 
after  him,  carried  this  bold  method  of  para- 
graphing to  extremes,  so  that  you  could  not 
see  the  town  for  the  houses,  the  story  for  the 
paragraphs.  Some  of  Hugo's  pages  are  an 
incessant  pop-pop  of  emphasis,  like  the  firing 
of  small  arms.  A  clever  writer,  in  the  course 
of  burlesquing  Victor  Hugo  along  with  other 
novelists,  hardly  exaggerates  the  excessive  in- 
dention of  Les  Miserables  when  he  writes  as 
follows : 

Toward  the  close  of  the  autumn  of  the  year  1859  there 
walked  slowly  through  the  streets  of  the  little  French 
hamlet  of  1^ on  the  N a  man. 

He  walked  slowly.  He  was  tired,  travel-stained,  dusty. 
He  carried  a  stick.     On  it  there  was  a  bundle. 

1  Elements  of  Rhetoric^  p.  70. 


PABAGRAPH  LENGTH  125 

The  evening  shadows  were  descending,  the  little 
children,  angels  released  awhile  on  a  ticket-of -leave 
from  the  skies,  were  struggling,  tired  of  play,  to  their 
homes.  The  bird  on  the  wing  was  weary  and  sought  his 
nest.  The  dog  was  tired  of  his  chase  and  crept  to  his 
kennel.  The  cock,  the  bumble-bee,  the  ox,  and  the 
spider,  were  all  weary  and  betook  themselves  to  shelter 
and  repose. 

The  man  was  tired. 

But  he  had  no  shelter.  He  had  no  home,  no  nest,  no 
kennel,  no  roost,  no  hive,  no  stall,  no  web.  Society, 
which  provides  even  for  the  cockroach  and  the  rat,  had 
found  no  place  for  him. 

Stay. 

For  the  cockroach  society  has  the  vermin  powder.  For 
the  rat  it  has  the  trap.  Thus  too  it  provided  for  Pierre 
Valpierre.  It  fed  his  youth  upon  vermin  powder.  It 
sheltered  his  manhood  in  the  trap.  .  .  . 

Years  passed  away. 

The  battle  of  Solferino  was  fought. 

Battle  of  giants.  Warring  of  Titans.  Struggle 
of  thunderbolts.     Collision  of  worlds  ! 

All  the  world  knows  the  phases  of  that  battle  — 
troublous,  uncertain,  hesitating,  menacing. 

It  was  not  a  battle ;  it  was  an  antagonism. 

On  the  one  side  warred  the  old  principle  of  divine 
right  and  monarchical  congresses.  On  the  other  the 
new  principle  of  nationality  and  popular  choice.  On 
the  side  of  Austria  a  superstition.  On  the  side  of  France 
an  idea ! 

That  idea  was  expressed  in  the  breath  of  rifle  cannon 
and  in  the  charge  of  French  cuirassiers ;  terrible,  grand, 
sublime,  grotesque ;  the  earth  shaking;  the  rivers  running 
backward;  the  clouds  bursting;  the  lightning  flashing; 
sabres  crossing  sabres  ;  cannons  vomiting  their  flame ; 


126  THE  PARAGRAPH 

the  ranks  of  France  confounded  with  the  ranks  of 
Austria ;  the  blue  mingling  with  the  white ;  the  steel 
entering  the  stomach ;  the  bullet  blowing  out  the  brains ; 
horses  upset ;  men  crushed ;  squadrons  charging ;  bat- 
talions trampled ;  generals  shouting ;  smoke  bursting  ; 
the  cuirassier  writhing  in  his  death-agony,  still  a  hero, 
a  giant,  a  Titan,  expiring  with  the  shout  of  France  and 
victory  on  his  lips ;  the  Uhlan  crying  for  quarter  ;  the 
Viennese  returning  to  the  charge ;  the  Venetian  falling 
on  his  own  sword ;  the  Sardinian  recognizing  a  country- 
man in  the  ranks  of  a  foe  ;  all  the  earth  streaming  with 
red ;  all  the  heaven  darkened  with  smoke ;  all  the  hill- 
tops veiled  in  vapor ;  all  the  iron  mouths  pouring  forth 
flame,  carnage,  destruction,  death  ! 

All  for  an  idea. 

Sublime  effort  of  modern  chivalry !  Immense  utter- 
ance of  French  enthusiasm  !  On  the  plain  of  Solferino 
France  buried  an  old  world  and  baptized  a  new  ! 

What  has  this  to  do  with  our  story  ? 

Nothing. 

Let  us,  therefore,  proceed. 

The  town  of  D is  not  anywhere  near  the  scene  of 

Solferino.  Hence  the  connection  of  ideas. — Justin  H. 
McCarthy  :  Our  Sensation  Novel. 

This  absurd  riot  of  emphasis  is  sometimes 
paralleled  in  the  work  of  sensational  journalists. 
It  even  penetrates  political  writings.  Nearly 
every  sentence  of  a  recent  Congressional  speech 
seemed  to  its  author  to  merit  the  distinction  of 
indention.  The  same  startling  effect  appears 
frequently  in  students'  themes,  although  it  is 
rarely  due  to  overstraining  for  emphasis.     It 


PARAGRAPH  LENGTH  127 

is  nearly  always  traceable  to  the  bad  habit  of 
writing  without  an  outline  before  one.  Unless 
a  young  student  had  previously  made  up  his 
mind  to  devote  but  one  paragraph  to  the 
description  of  a  person,  he  would  say  to  him- 
self, "  That  sentence  is  about  his  face  —  that's 
one  topic,"  and  would  indent  it ;  "that  is  about 
his  eyes  —  that's  another  topic,"  and  would 
indent  it.  The  result  would  be  like  this  in- 
correct form : 

His  was  a  physiognomy  to  strike  the  stranger,  not  by 
reason  of  its  nobility,  but  because  of  its  oddity. 

He  had  a  prodigious  length  of  face,  the  nose  long  in 
proportion,  but  not  prominent. 

The  eyes  were  dark,  very  bright,  and  wide  apart,  with 
little  eyebrows  dabbed  over  them  at  a  slanting  angle. 

The  thin-lipped  mouth  rather  pursed  up,  which  made 
his  smile  the  contradiction  it  was. 

In  short,  my  dears,  while  I  do  not  lay  claim  to  the 
reading  of  character,  it  required  no  great  astuteness  to 
perceive  the  scholar,  the  man  of  the  world,  and  the  ascetic 
—  and  all  affected. 

It  should  have  been  like  this  correct  form: 

His  was  a  physiognomy  to  strike  the  stranger,  not  by 
reason  of  its  nobility,  but  because  of  its  oddity.  He  had 
a  prodigious  length  of  face,  the  nose  long  in  proportion, 
but  not  prominent.  The  eyes  were  dark,  very  bright, 
and  wide  apart,  with  little  eyebrows  dabbed  over  them 
at  a  slanting  angle.  The  thin-lipped  mouth  rather  pursed 
up,  which  made  his  smile  the  contradiction  it  was.     In 


1'2S  TBE  PABAQBAPH 

short,  my  dears,  while  I  do  not  lay  claim  to  the  reading 
of  character,  it  required  no  great  astuteness  to  perceive 
the  scholar,  the  man  of  the  world,  and  the  ascetic  —  and 
all  affected. 

But  every  main  division  has  its  subordinate 
topics.  The  next  question  is,  Should  each 
of  these  be  made  a  paragraph,  or  should  several 
be  united  in  one  ?  Again  the  question  is  partly 
determined  by  length.  No  sub-topic  is  likely 
to  need  more  than  three  hundred  words;  there- 
fore a  sub-topic  itself  should  not  be  divided. 
But  it  must  frequently  happen  that  a  sentence 
or  two  will  develop  a  sub-topic,  and  in  such 
cases  several  topics  must  be  united,  to  avoid 
an  undeserved  conspicuousness.  The  proper 
method  to  pursue  in  such  a  case  is  illustrated 
by  the  following : 

There  were  a  number  of  other  ways  in  which  we  sought 
to  reform  the  police  force,  less  important,  and  neverthe- 
less very  important.  We  paid  particular  heed  to  putting 
a  premium  on  specially  meritorious  conduct,  by  awarding 
certificates  of  honorable  mention,  and  medals,  where  we 
were  unable  to  promote.  We  introduced  a  system  of 
pistol  practice  by  which,  for  the  first  time,  the  policemen 
were  brought  to  a  reasonable  standard  of  efficiency  in 
handling  their  revolvers.  The  Bertillion  system  for  the 
identification  of  criminals  was  introduced.  A  bicycle 
squad  was  organized  with  remarkable  results,  this  squad 
speedily  becoming  a  kind  of  corps  d' elite,  whose  individual 
members   distinguished    themselves   not  only  by  their 


PARAGRAPH  LENGTH  129 

devotion  to  duty,  but  by  repeated  exhibitions  of  remark- 
able daring  and  skill.  One  important  bit  of  reform  was 
abolishing  the  tramp  lodging-houses,  which  had  originally 
been  started  in  the  police  stations,  in  a  spirit  of  unwise 
philanthropy.  These  tramp  lodging-houses,  not  being 
properly  supervised,  were  mere  nurseries  for  pauperism 
and  crime,  tramps  and  loafers  of  every  shade  thronging 
to  the  city  every  winter  to  enjoy  their  benefits.  We 
abolished  them,  a  municipal  lodging-house  being  substi- 
tuted. Here  all  homeless  wanderers  were  received,  forced 
to  bathe,  given  night-clothes  before  going  to  bed,  and 
made  to  work  next  morning,  and  in  addition  they  were 
so  closely  supervised  that  habitual  tramps  and  vagrants 
were  speedily  detected  and  apprehended.  —  Theodore 
Roosevelt:  American  Ideals. 

In  the  following  selections,  the  writer  evi- 
dently thought  that  the  practical  importance  of 
certain  statements  warranted  making  them 
more  conspicuous  than  logic  would  demand. 
Indicate  paragraphs  that  might  logically  be 
joined.  Say  whether  you  would  defend  the 
indenting  as  it  now  stands,  and  give  your 
reasons. 

Artificial  respiration  is  a  most  precious,  and  often  the 
only,  means  of  saving  life,  when  threatened  by  any  tem- 
porary interference  with  respiration,  as  in  drowning,  in 
gas-poisoning,  and  sometimes  as  a  result  of  a  powerful 
electric  shock.  In  cases  of  drowning,  especially,  a  knowl- 
edge on  the  part  of  some  bystander  of  the  way  to  perform 
artificial  respiration  may  result  in  saving  a  life  that  would 
otherwise  be  lost. 

There  are  several  ways  of  imitating  the  natural  breath- 


130  THE  PARAGRAPH 

ing,  but  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  describe  them  all,  and 
an  attempt  to  do  so  might  only  cause  confusion  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader.  The  so-called  Sylvester's  method  is 
one  of  the  best  because  it  is  so  easily  mastered. 

The  object  is  to  expand  and  contract  the  chest  alter- 
nately, so  as  to  draw  in  and  expel  the  air,  as  is  done  in 
natural  breathing. 

The  operator  kneels  at  the  head  of  the  unconscious 
person  and  grasps  his  arms  just  below  the  elbows,  press- 
ing them  very  firmly  and  with  all  his  weight  against  the 
chest.  After  maintaining  this  pressure  for  two  or  three 
seconds,  the  arms  are  drawn  up  above  the  patient's  head 
and  held  there  for  a  couple  of  seconds.  Then  they  are 
lowered  again,  and  pressure  is  made  upon  the  chest  as 
before.  These  movements  should  be  repeated  about 
twelve  times  a  minute,  quietly  and  without  hurry. 

This  does  not  sound  difficult,  yet  one  ought  to  practise 
doing  it  on  a  companion,  so  as  to  have  the  necessary  con- 
fidence which  only  practice  can  give,  if  called  upon  to  do 
it  in  a  real  case  of  drowning.  It  is  fatiguing,  especially 
when  it  is  kept  up,  as  it  sometimes  must  be,  for  an  hour 
or  more  without  a  moment's  intermission ;  but  this  is  a 
small  matter  when  a  human  life  is  at  stake.  —  The  Youth's 
Companion. 

The  three  defects  of  eyesight  which  are  most  com- 
monly encountered  in  otherwise  healthy  persons,  and 
which  can  be  more  or  less  perfectly  overcome  by  means 
of  glasses,  are  near-sightedness,  far-sightedness,  and  astig- 
matism. These  are  all  important,  for  besides  the  discom- 
fort and  annoyance  of  imperfect  sight,  the  involuntary 
efforts  which  the  sufferer  makes  to  see  better  strain  the 
eyes,  and  not  only  injure  them,  but  also  give  rise,  through 
reflex  action,  to  headaches  and  various  nervous  dis- 
turbances. 

Near-sightedness,  short-sightedness,  or  myopia,  as  it  is 


PABAGRAPH  LENGTH  131 

variously  called,  is  a  condition  of  the  eyeball — usually  a 
lengthening  —  in  consequence  of  which  the  rays  of  light 
are  brought  to  a  focus  in  front  of  the  retina,  and  so  the 
object  is  blurred. 

This  condition  may  exist  from  birth,  but  is  usually 
the  result  of  too  much  and  too  early  use  of  the  eyes,  as 
in  the  case  of  students,  engravers,  women  who  do  fine 
sewing,  and  so  forth.  Thus  we  may  say  that  putting 
children  to  work  at  some  of  the  kindergarten  exercises, 
such  as  perforating  and  drawing,  is  in  a  double  sense  a 
short-sighted  procedure. 

Many  near-sighted  people  refuse  to  wear  glasses,  pre- 
ferring to  deprive  themselves  of  sight  for  everything 
beyond  the  nose  rather  than  to  injure  their  personal  ap- 
pearance, as  they  think.  This  is  another  short-sighted 
policy,  for  besides  losing  much  of  the  joy  of  existence, 
which  comes  from  seeing  the  beautiful  things  about  and 
above  us,  such  persons  are  very  liable  to  suffer  from  in- 
flammation of  the  eyes,  produced  by  constant  strain. 

A  less  common  defect  is  long  or  far-sightedness,  or 
hypermetropia.  This  is  the  opposite  of  myopia,  the  eye- 
ball being  flattened  or  shortened,  and  the  rays  of  light 
consequently  not  coming  to  a  focus  by  the  time  they  reach 
the  retina. 

In  this  case,  the  eye  often  corrects  the  defect  more 
or  less  successfully  by  making  the  crystalline  lens  more 
convex ;  but  it  does  this  at  the  expense  of  the  sufferer's 
nervous  force,  and  so  we  often  find  tired  and  congested 
eyes,  headaches,  indigestion,  and  even  serious  nervous 
affections.  The  effort  to  correct  the  vision  is  entirely 
involuntary,  and  can  be  overcome  only  by  the  fitting  of 
suitable  convex  glasses. 

The  third  and  most  common  defect  is  astigmatism. 
In  this  condition  there  is  some  irregularity  of  the  surface 
of  the  eye  or  of  the  lens,  by  means  of  which  the  image 


132  THE  PARAGBAPH 

as  it  reaches  the  retina  is  distorted.  Untreated  astigma- 
tism is  a  frequent  cause  of  headache  and  other  nervous 
disturbances.  The  only  relief  is  the  wearing  of  glasses, 
at  least  while  reading,  writing,  or  whenever  near  objects 
are  looked  at.  —  The  Youth's  Companion. 

Exercise  28.  (Oral,^  The  following  para- 
graphs are  too  long  to  be  readily  grasped. 
Divide  them  into  shorter  ones  along  natural 
lines  of  cleavage,  placing  the  ^  mark  at  the 
appropriate  places  in  the  text. 

1.  I  was  witness  to  events  of  a  less  peaceful  character. 
One  day  when  I  went  out  to  my  woodpile,  or  rather  my 
pile  of  stumps,  I  observed  two  large  ants,  the  one  red, 
the  other  much  larger,  nearly  half  an  inch  long,  and 
black,  fiercely  contending  with  one  another.  Having 
once  got  hold,  they  never  let  go,  but  struggled  and  wres- 
tled and  rolled  on  the  chips  incessantly.  Looking  farther, 
I  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  chips  were  covered  with 
such  combatants,  that  it  was  not  a  duellum,  but  a  helium, 
a  war  between  two  races  of  ants,  the  red  always  pitted 
against  the  black,  and  frequently  two  red  ones  to  one 
black.  The  legions  of  these  Myrmidons  covered  all  the 
hills  and  vales  in  my  woodyard,  and  the  ground  was 
already  strewn  with  the  dead  and  dying,  both  red  and 
black.  It  was  the  only  battle  which  I  have  ever  wit- 
nessed, the  only  battle-field  I  ever  trod  while  the  battle 
^.^S^s  raging ;  internecine  war ;  the  red  republicans  on  the 
one  Han d,^  and  the  black  imperialists  on  the  other.  On 
every  side  they  were  engaged  in  deadly  combat,  yet  with- 
out any  noise  that  I  could  hear,  and  human  soldiers  never 
fought  so  resolutely,  ffl  watched  a  couple  that  were  fast 
locked  in  each  other's  embraces,  in  a  little  sunny  valley 


PARAGRAPH  LENGTH  133 

amid  the  chips,  now  at  noonday  prepared  to  fight  till  the 
sun  went  dow^n  or  life  went  out.  The  smaller  red  cham- 
pion had  fastened  himself  like  a  vise  to  his  adversary's 
front,  and  through  all  the  tumblings  on  that  field  never 
for  an  instant  ceased  to  gnaw  at  one  of  his  feelers  near 
the  root,  having  already  caused  the  other  to  go  by  the 
board;  while  the  stronger  black  one  dashed  him  from 
side  to  side,  and,  as  I  saw  on  looking  nearer,  had  already 
divested  him  of  several  of  his  members.  They  fought 
with  more  pertinacity  than  bull-dogs.  Neither  mani- 
fested the  least  disposition  to  retreat.  It  was  evident 
that  their  battle-cry  was  Conquer  or  die.  ^In  the  mean- 
while there  came  along  a  single  red  ant  fan  the  hillside 
of  this  valley,  evidently  full  of  excitement,  who  either 
had  despatched  his  foe  or  had  not  yet  taken  part  in  the 
battle,  — probably  the  latter,  for  he  had  lost  none  of  his 
limbs,  —  whose  mother  had  charged  him  to  return  with 
his  shield  or  upon  it.  Or  perchance  he  was  some  Achil- 
les, who  had  nourished  his  wrath  apart,  and  had  now 
come  to  avenge  or  rescue  his  Patroclus.  He  saw  this 
unequal  combat  from  afar,  —  for  the  blacks  were  nearly 
twice  the  size  of  the  red,  —  he  drew  near  with  rapid  pace 
till  he  stood  on  his  guard  within  half  an  inch  of  the  com- 
batants; then,  watching  his  opportunity,  he  sprang  upon 
the  black  warrior,  and  commenced  his  operations  near 
the  root  of  his  right  fore-leg,  leaving  the  foe  to  select 
among  his  own  members;  and  so  there  were  three, 
united  for  life,  as  if  a  new  kind  of  attraction  had 
been  invented  which  put  all  other  locks  and  cements 
to  shame.  l/l  should  not  have  wondered  by  this  time  to 
find  that  they  had  their  respective  musical  bands  sta- 
tioned on  some  eminent  chip,  and  playing  their  na- 
tional airs  the  while,  to  excite  the  slow  and  cheer  the 
dying  combatants.  I  w^as  myself  excited  somewhat  even 
as  if  they  had  been  men.     The  more  you  think  of  it  the 


134  THE  PARAGRAPH 

less  the  difference.  And  certainly  there  is  not  the  fight 
recorded  in  Concord  history,  at  least,  if  in  the  history 
of  America,  that  will  bear  a  moment's  comparison  with 
this,  whether  for  the  numbers  engaged  in  it,  or  for  the 
patriotism  and  heroism  displayed.  For  numbers  and  for 
carnage  it  was  an  Austerlitz  or  Dresden.  Concord  Fight! 
Two  killed  on  the  patriots'  side,  and  Luther  Blanchard 
wounded!  Why,  here  every  ant  was  a  Buttrick, — 
"  Fire  !  for  God's  sake,  fire  !  "  —  and  thousands  shared 
the  fate  of  Davis  and  Hosmer.  There  was  not  one  hire- 
ling there.  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  was  a  principle  they 
fought  for,  as  much  as  our  ancestors,  and  not  to  avoid  a 
three-penny  tax  on  their  tea ;  and  the  results  of  this  bat- 
tle will  be  as  important  and  memorable  to  those  whom  it 
concerns  as  those  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  at  least. 
—  Thoreau:   Walden. 

2.  Splashing  back  and  forth  through  the  shallow  pools, 
gathering  the  spikes  of  the  white  orchis,  I  did  not  at  first 
notice  a  distant  sound  which  grew  in  volume  until  its 
sullen  vibration  could  not  be  ignored.  The  tree-tops 
above  me  gave  a  sudden,  vicious  swish.  Crows  to  the 
westward  were  cawing  wildly.  The  roar  of  the  storm 
became  unmistakable ;  the  swamp  grew  darker ;  a  few 
big  drops  of  rain  fell,  and  then,  as  though  a  train  were 
plunging  down  noisy  rails  upon  the  forest,  the  rain  and 
wind  leaped  upon  the  trees,  filling  the  air  with  deafening 
sounds,  and  twisting  the  branches  until  it  seemed  as 
though  the  whole  structure  of  the  woods  was  about  to 
collapse  in  one  vast  ruin.  Then  through  the  tormented 
tree-tops  the  floods  fell.  They  were  white  like  snow,  and 
seemed  to  be  a  fallen  part  of  a  white  sky  which  showed 
now  and  then  as  the  forest  swayed  back  and  forth  in  the 
wind's  arms.  Wet  as  the  swamp  had  been  before,  its 
colors  became  more  vivid  under  this  deluge.  Every  leaf 
grew  greener,  and  each  lichen  gave  out  new  tints  as  it 


PARAGRAPH  LENGTH  135 

drank  in  rain.  The  trunks  of  the  trees  assumed  more 
distinctive  shades ;  that  of  the  ash  became  brown,  of  the 
yellow  birch  ahnost  like  saffron,  and  of  the  canoe  birch 
glistening  white.  The  rain  pelting  into  my  eyes  bade 
me  look  less  at  the  sky  and  more  at  the  beauties  at  my 
feet.  Beauties  there  surely  were  at  my  feet,  both  of 
color  and  form.  There  were  no  flowers,  but  the  leaves 
were  enough  to  satisfy  both  eye  and  mind,  —  large 
leaves  and  small,  coarse  and  delicate,  strong  and  fee- 
ble, stiff  and  drooping.  Some  were  long  and  slender, 
others  deeply  cleft,  some  round,  or  smoothly  oval,  others 
shaped  like  arrow-heads.  Some  received  the  rain  sub- 
missively and  bowed  more  and  more  before  it,  others 
responded  buoyantly  as  each  drop  struck  them  and  was 
tossed  off.  In  some  the  up-and-down  motion  com- 
municated by  the  falling  drop  was  by  the  formation 
of  the  leaf-stalk  transformed  at  once  into  an  odd  vibra- 
tion from  side  to  side,  which  was  like  an  indignant  shak- 
ing of  the  head.  —  Bolles  :  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp 
Water. 

3.  Another  fact  of  which  much  complaint  is  made 
that  it  presents  a  serious  danger  to  our  institutions  is  the 
concentration  of  capital  and  business  either  in  the  hands 
of  monopolies  or  in  those  of  large  corporations,  who  can 
exercise  an  undue  influence  upon  the  lives  and  fortunes 
of  the  general  population.  I  do  not  sympathise  with  the 
widespread  opinion  that  great  accumulations  of  wealth 
are  an  intrinsic  evil,  for  they  are  not.  But  when  they 
add  to  their  natural  advantages  over  others  the  posses- 
sion of  political  power,  acquired  by  the  defiance  of 
justice,  they  do  certainly  menace  popular  institutions. 
Wealth  is  a  blessing  or  a  curse,  according  to  the  manner 
of  its  acquisition  and  its  consumption.  Obtained  by 
superior  skill  and  intelligence,  under  equal  conditions,  it 
offers  no  excusable  temptations  to  envy  and  jealousy,  for 


136  THE  PAEAGRAPH 

it  then  represents  only  what  every  man  can  claim  as  the 
natural  and  legitimate  reward  of  his  labour.  But  when  it 
is  the  result  of  political  influence  upon  the  machinery  of 
government,  such  as  protection,  blackmail,  legislative 
favours,  etc.,  which  represent  some  surreptitious  form  of 
taxation  and  police  force,  we  are  threatened  with  the 
repetition  of  the  old  Roman  struggle  between  the  prole- 
tariat and  the  property-holders.  This  undue  influence  of 
wealth,  however,  is  not  wholly  caused  by  the  selfishness 
of  capitalists,  but  is  quite  as  much  the  result  of  the  neces- 
sity for  defending  property  against  the  propensities  of 
blackmailers  elected  to  office  by  democracy.  This  neces- 
sity for  self-defence  relaxes  the  austerity  of  conscience 
even  in  those  who  would  otherwise  respect  its  commands. 
All  the  power  and  temptation  are  given  those  who  have 
no  regard  for  law  under  any  circumstances.  Conse- 
quently, under  the  present  regime  in  democratic  politics, 
with  wealth  compelled  to  employ  political  subreption  for 
defence  or  enabled  to  use  it  for  illegitimate  advantages, 
it  comes  in  for  all  the  jealousy  that  men  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  entertain  against  imperialism,  because  it  does 
represent  something  like  the  irresponsibility  of  despotism 
in  the  exercise  of  its  power  in  the  community.  The 
existence  of  such  an  influence  in  society,  especially  when 
it  contravenes  the  sentiment  of  equality  and  is  a  perpet- 
ual menace  to  justice,  no  matter  what  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment, will  create  a  demand  for  political  reforms. — 
Hyslop  :  Democracy. 

4.  It  is  a  very  healthy  sign  that  in  nearly  all  country 
communities  men  who  follow  these  practices  are  more  or 
less  under  the  ban  of  public  opinion,  an  opinion  not 
always  expressed,  but  felt.  One  of  the  highest  compli- 
ments that  farming  communities  pay  to  themselves  is  the 
high  honor  in  which  they  hold  farmers  and  business 
men  of  all  classes  who  do  business  on  principles  of  the 


PAHAGUAPH  LENGTH  137 

highest  honor.  When  a  man  sends  a  car-load  of  hogs  or 
cattle  to  the  dealer  at  the  station,  in  the  full  confidence 
that  whether  the  market  of  the  day  before  be  up  or 
down,  he  will  get  the  full  value  without  a  previous  con- 
tract, he  pays  him  about  as  high  honor  as  one  man  can 
well  pay  another,  and  I  have  noticed  that  dealers  who 
treat  farmers  in  this  spirit  are  almost  uniformly  men 
who  make  money.  In  all  dealings  of  man  with  man, 
the  confidence  of  the  customer  is  the  most  valuable  asset 
of  the  dealer.  It  is  something  that  cannot  be  taxed,  or 
destroyed  by  fire,  or  by  flood ;  cannot  be  measured  by 
dollars,  but  is  gradually  coined  into  dollars  as  the  farmer 
transforms  the  rain,  the  sunshine,  the  electric  currents, 
and  the  stored  fertility  of  the  soil  into  crops.  There  can 
be  no  confidence,  whatever,  reposed  in  the  man  or  corpo- 
ration which  is  guided  solely  by  commercial  morality. 
It  is  death  to  manhood,  death  to  legitimate  business, 
death  to  every  noble  feeling  and  aspiration,  and  were  it 
generally  practised,  it  would  be  death  to  the  civilization 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  under  the  condemna- 
tion of  every  law  of  God;  it  is  under  the  ban  of  all 
good  men ;  it  is  civilized  savagery  and  business  barba- 
rism; at  least,  so  believes  your  Uncle  Henry.  —  Henry 
Wallace  :   Letters  to  the  Farm  Boy. 

Exercise  29.  (  Oral,)  In  the  following  out- 
line point  out  those  sub-topics  which  seem 
relatively  important  enough  to  form  each  a 
paragraph,  and  those  which  might  be  joined  on 
the  ground  of  relative  unimportance.  The 
outline  is  that  of  an  article  addressed  to  the 
general  public,  not  to  a  special  public  of  hay- 
fever  patients,  or  of  yachtsmen,  or  of  fishermen. 


138  THE  PARAGRAPH 


THE   GREAT   LAKES   AS   SUMMER   RESORTS 

§  1.   Advantageous  Position  of  Lakes  in  the  Con- 
tinent : 

magnificent  extent  of  lakes ; 

possible  length  of  steamer  trips ; 

possible  number  of  lakeside  settlements ; 

convenience  of  such  settlements  to  markets. 
§  2.  Lake  Scenery : 

Lake  Ontario ; 

Lake  Erie; 

Niagara; 

Lake  Huron ; 

Lake  Michigan ; 

Lake  Superior. 
§  3.   Lake  Air  : 

its  deliciousness ; 

value  of  its  oxygen  as  recuperative ; 

value  of  its  purity  in  treatment  of  hay-fever ; 

value  of  its  purity  in  treatment  of   bronchial 
troubles ; 

value    of    its     purity  in    treatment    of    lung 
troubles ; 

value  as  an  alterative  ^  to  seaside  dwellers ; 

slight  disadvantage  of  its  tonic  effect  in  some 
cases. 
§  4.   Lake  Water  : 

beauty  of  it  in  morning ; 

beauty  of  it  at  noon  ; 

beauty  of  it  in  evening  ; 

deliciousness  as  drinking  water ; 

convenience  of  it  as  drinking  water ; 

^A  remedy  tending  to   change  gradually  the  nutritive 
processes  to  a  normal  state. 


PARAGRAPH  LENGTH  139 

healthf ulness  as  soft  drinking  water ; 

value  of  its  purity  in  effect  on  fish ; 

fine  quality  of  bass ; 

fine  quality  of  even  pout  and  suckers ; 

slight  disadvantage  of  coldness  in  preventing 

bathing; 
slight  disadvantage  to  bathers  of  absence  of  salt. 

§  5.   Lake  Fishing  : 

lake  trout,  where  found  ; 

speckled  trout,  where  found ; 

great  size  of  Superior  speckled  trout ; 

disadvantages  of  speckled  trout ; 

fishing  on  Superior  and  tributaries ; 

distance  from  settlements ; 

insects ; 

white  fish :  net  fishing  ; 

herring :  few  days  each  year  in  certain  regions ; 

wall-eyed  pike  :  few  localities ; 

bass  :  many  localities ; 

typical  game  fish  of  the  lakes ; 

delights  of  bass-fishing ; 

very  great  danger  from  illegal  netting ; 

what  can  be  done  to  preserve  the  bass ; 

the  new  fish  laws. 

§  6.   Yachting : 

places  the  sailor  in  command  of  all  things  pre- 
viously mentioned ; 

great  variety  of  waters ; 

great  variety  of  good  harbors  ; 

recreates  by  occupying  but  not  fatiguing 
attention ; 

recreates  by  occasional  excitement; 

recreates  by  exercise. 

§  7.    Summary. 


140  THE  PARAGRAPH 


^ 


Exercise  30.  (  Written.  )  After  studying 
the  outlines  of  your  five  themes,  determine  on 
the  topic  of  each  paragraph  and  assign  to  each  the 
appropriate  number  of  words.  Then  expand 
each  paragraph  topic  into  a  complete  paragraph. 

§  3.  Paragraph  vs.  Long  Sentence.  —  A  fault 
quite  as  common  as  the  unduly  brief  paragraph 
is  the  single-sentence  paragraph  of  great  length. 
A  writer  should  understand  the  value  of  the 
paragraph  as  an  aid  to  expression.  It  permits 
him  to  get  said  —  by  a  group  of  brief,  clear, 
unperplexed  statements  —  a  unit  of  thought 
which  could  not  get  said  at  all  in  one  unwieldy 
mass  of  words  offering  itself  as  a  sentence. 
This  is  what  the  English  paragraph  was  devel- 
oped for,  after  English  writers  had  vainly  tried 
to  load  the  English  sentence  as  Latin  writers 
had  loaded  the  Latin  sentence.  Let  us  com- 
pare several  undeveloped  paragraphs  —  neither 
good  paragraphs  nor  good  sentences  —  with 
fully  developed  paragraphs  written  on  the  same 
subject. 

A  college  man  wins  in  life  by  his  having  formed  good 
habits  of  life  and  thought,  enabling  him  to  have  a  correct 
attitude  toward  truth  and  a  control  of  his  own  mental 
processes  and  good  habits  of  work,  involving  a  sense  of 
time  and  duty  ;  for  such  men  are  always  wanted,  not  the 


PARAGRAPH  VS.  LONG   SENTENCE     141 

nuisances  who  are  forever  toiling  to  create  a  demand  for 
themselves. 

The  best  scholars,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  are  intel- 
lectually much  nearer  a  level  than  their  achievements 
indicate,  but  are  distinguished  from  each  other  by  that 
power  of  will  which  makes  them  regular  and  punctual  in 
their  college  work  and  successful  in  life. 

1  have  known  men  who  became  mere  drifters  through 
life,  swept  with  every  current,  and  though  they  had  the 
finest  intellectual  and  athletic  training  were  of  no  use 
for  any  sublunar  purpose. 

Of  course  the  college  tests  are  not  always  such  as  to 
prevent  some  small  and  mean  men  from  reaching  honors 
by  sheer  digging  —  though  the  modern  college  oifers 
them  less  opportunity  than  the  old  curriculum  —  but  in 
general  the  mere  diggers  are  men  of  the  muck-rake. 

In  every  American  college  the  man  who  does  his  col- 
lege work  well,  takes  an  honest  but  not  excessive  part  in 
athletics  and  student  affairs,  is  clean  in  manners,  morals, 
and  dress,  will  win  in  life  whether  he  is  valedictorian  or 
not. 

The  foregoing  paragraphs  are  adapted  —  or, 
more  exactly,  mutilated  —  from  the  following 
well  developed  paragraphs  : 

A  college  man  wins  in  life  not  by  virtue  of  the  special 
knowledge  he  has  acquired  so  much  as  by  the  habits  he 
has  formed.  Habits  of  mind  involve  an  attitude  toward 
truth.  Habits  of  thinking  involve  a  control  of  the  men- 
tal processes.  Habits  of  work  involve  sense  for  time  and 
for  duty.  A  man  who  does  things  at  the  time  when  they 
ought  to  be  done  is  likely  to  be  wanted.  It  is  the  men 
who  are  wanted  that  are  the  successes.     The  men  w^ho 


142  THE  PAJRAGBAPH 

are  forever  toiling  to  create  a  demand  for  themselves, 
they  are  the  nuisances. 

The  best  scholars  succeed  best  in  life  chiefly,  I  believe, 
because  they  have  been  most  regular  and  punctual  in 
doing  their  college  work.  My  experience  with  college 
students  teaches  me  that  they  are  intellectually  much 
nearer  a  level  than  their  achievements  indicate.  It  is 
power  of  will  more  than  power  of  mind  that  differenti- 
ates them.  Mast  and  ought  have  fifty  times  more  stuff 
in  them  than  might  and  could. 

I  have  known  men  of  the  superbest  equipment  and 
the  finest  intellectual  and  athletic  training  who  were  of 
no  possible  use  for  any  sublunar  purpose,  because  they 
could  not  be  relied  upon  to  keep  an  appointment  or  to  do 
anything  they  had  agreed  to  do  at  a  specified  time. 
Having  lost  faith  in  their  own  wdlls,  they  had  ceased  to 
plan  their  own  w^ork,  and  were  drifting  on  through  life 
swept  with  every  current. 

The  college  tests  are  not  always  such  as  to  prevent 
some  fairly  small  men  and  pretty  mean  men  from  reach- 
ing class  honors  by  sheer  digging,  but  the  modern  college 
offers  them  less  opportunity  than  the  old  curriculum. 
Digging  is  good,  for  it  betrays  wdll-fibre,  but  the  "  digs  " 
and  "  grinds ""  who  lack  heart  and  vision  will  prove  to  be 
men  of  the  muck-rake. 

There  is  a  type  of  man  found  well  represented  in 
every  class  of  modern  American  college  from  whom  one 
may  expect  a  successful  life.  He  does  his  college  work 
faithfully  and  stands  well  in  his  class.  He  takes  part  in 
student  sports  and  student  affairs  without  being  pure 
athlete  or  impure  class  politician.  He  is  clean  in  man- 
niers,  morals,  and  dress.  He  holds  the  solid  respect  of  his 
class  without  being  flabbily  popular.  He  plans  his  work, 
keeps  his  appointments,  moves  toward  a  goal,  and  spends 
no   time   in   watching   himself  grow.     It  matters  little 


PARAGRAPH  VS.  LONG   SENTENCE     143 

whether   such   a  man    is  valedictorian  or  not.  —  Presi- 
dent B.  I.  Wheeler,  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post. 

Exercise  31.  (^Written.}  Rewrite  the  fol- 
lowing long,  single-sentence  paragraphs  in  the 
form  of  true  paragraphs  : 

THE   PROBLEM    OF    TRUSTS   STATED 

Since  a  trust  is  a  combination  of  rival  firms  into  one 
organization,  it  is  an  improvement  in  the  manner  of 
production  and  sale  of  goods,  superior  organization 
always  being  a  measure  of  economy  because  there  are  no  . 
conflicting  policies  of  different  managers  to  carry  out^ 
causing  unnecessary  expense  and  perhaps  paralysis  of 
the  firm's  activity  at  times  when  sales  ought  to  be  going 
on,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  causing  less  expense  in  fight- 
ing rivals  Jhand  as  has  often  been  shown,  the  trust  is  in  a 
position  to  command  all  the  best  inventive  talent  and  all 
those  secrets  of  manufacture  which  are  carefully  guarded 
by  rival  firms. 

Since,  then,  the  trust  is  in  a  position  to  benefit  the 
entire  country,  the  only  questions  are  two :  Is  it  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  control  the  market jj^nd  If  it  controls 
the  market,  will  it  keep  the  prices  up  to  an  unjust 
standard  ?l/^uch  light  being  thrown  on  one  of  these 
questions  by  the  widely  circulated  statement  that  one 
company  made  eighty  millions  of  profit  in  one  yeai^ 
which  all  went  of  course  to  a  comparatively  small  num- 
ber of  men,  raising  the  question,  not  whether  some  men 
do  not  deserve  much  more  money  than  others,  but 
whether  they  do  not  retain  even  more  by  far  than  they 
deserve,  andj^so  the  question  whether  such  things  as 
mother  earth  yields  and  which  are  necessary  to  the  true 


144  THE  PABAGBAPH 

progress  of  the  race  —  such  things  as  iron  and  oil — do 
not  belong  to  the  entire  race  rather  than  to  any  one 
gronp  of  men. 

Although  such  a  vast  question  is  not  easily  settled, 
involving  as  it  does  the  general  question  of  individu- 
alism and  communism,pftie  right  of  the  individual  to  the 
products  of  his  labor  and  his  intellectual  powers,  and 
being  complicated  by  the  fact  that  certain  of  the  greatest 
monopolists  of  this  country  are  men  of  generosity,  high 
character,  and  conscientious  convictions,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  public  is  intensely  interested  in  the  right 
settling  of  the  problem,  whether  by  wise  regulation 
of  trusts,  or  by  the  more  radical  and  as  yet  untried, 
method  of  public  purchase  of  certain  so-called  natural 
monopolies. 

M 

Exercise   32.     {Written.^      Examine   your 

themes  to  discover  any  paragraph  which  con- 
sists of  but  one  long,  involved  sentence.  If 
you  find  such  a  sentence-paragraph,  break  it  up 
into  several  short  statements  —  not  mechani- 
cally, but  recasting  the  whole  as  a  coherent  group 
of  sentences,  coherently  joined  with  the  neigh- 
boring paragraphs.  Observe  that  these  directions 
do  not  apply  to  all  long  sentences^  hut  only  to 
any  one  that  you  may  have  paragraphed  hy  itself. 
If  you  find  no  such  paragraph,  then  this  exer- 
cise requires  no  Avritten  w^ork  of  you. 

§  4.  Proportion  of  Parts  in  the  Paragraph.  — 
In  Section  2  of  this  chapter  we  saw  that  every 


PROPORTION   OF  PARTS  IN  PARAGRAPH    145 

•  section  and  paragraph  of  a  composition  should 
have  bulk  according  to  its  importance.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  main  parts  of  a  paragraph, 
though  these  are  not  indicated  by  any  numeral 
or  indention.  Each  of  these  unmarked  divisions 
should  have  many  words  or  few,  many  sentences 
or  few,  according  to  its  importance.  You  will 
perhaps  think  that  we  are  carrying  this  matter 
of  proportion  down  to  rather  line  distinctions, 
but  you  will  admit  that  the  principle  applies 
in  theory  ;  and  though  it  will  not  alwaj'S  be 
worth  your  while  to  worry  about  arithmetic  in 
the  proportioning  of  paragraph  parts,  there  is 
a  practical  side  to  the  matter.  If  the  average 
student  were  telling  the  story  of  the  following 
paragraph,  the  chances  are  that  he  would  con- 
sume twice  the  time  in  getting  to  the  interest- 
ing part  as  did  the  trained  journalist  who  wrote 
it.  See  how  the  four  stages,  indicated  by  the 
vertical  lines,  increase  in  length  according  to 
their  relative  importance. 

Quite  as  instructive,  and  even  more  picturesque,  was 
the  example  set  by  Levi  P.  Morton,  after  he  failed  heavily 
in  the  dry-goods  business,  a  number  of  years  ago.  |  The 
crash  was  unexpected,  too.  He  had  established  an  excel- 
lent commercial  reputation,  one  which  had  given  him  an 
insight  into  banking,  |  and  to  this  industry  he  next 
turned  his  attention.     In  a  little  notebook  which  he  car- 


146  THE  PARAGRAPH 

ried,  he  kept  the  name  of  each  creditor,  the  amount  for  * 
which  he  had  compromised,  and  the  full  amount  which 
he  should  have  received.  |  One  day,  when  most  of  the 
debts  had  been  forgotten  or  charged  up  to  profit  and 
loss,  and  when  Mr.  Morton  had  earned  a  snug  sum  as  a 
banker,  the  former  creditors  were  invited  to  a  banquet. 
A  date  was  set  some  little  time  ahead  of  the  invitations, 
and  Mr.  Morton  made  it  a  point  to  call  on  each  expected 
guest  and  urge  him  to  dine  with  him  at  the  appointed 
place.  Each  man  supposed  that  he  was  to  be  the  only 
guest,  for  the  host  said  nothing  of  his  real  purpose. 
Great  was  the  surprise,  therefore,  when  a  large  company 
assembled ;  but  greater  still  was  the  sensation  when  every 
guest  found,  under  his  plate,  a  certified  check  for  the 
amount  still  due  him,  together  with  full  interest. — 
Ellery  Ogden,  in  Success. 

Examine  the  paragraph  by  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
p.  128,  and  comment  omthe  relative  amount  of 
space  given  to  each  sub-topic  of  the  paragraph. 
Do  the  same  with  Thoreau's  long  paragraph, 
p.  132. 

Exercise  33.  (Written.)  Examine  each 
paragraph  of  your  themes  with  reference  to  the 
proportion  of  its  parts.  Contract  or  expand  as 
much  as  may  be  necessary  to  give  each  part  the 
number  of  words  due  its  importance. 

§  5.  Junction  of  Paragraphs.  —  That  "  connec- 
tion is  the  soul  of  good  writing  "  is  even  truer 
of  connection  between  paragraphs  than  of  con- 


JUNCTION  OF  PARAGRAPHS  147 

nection  between  sections.  The  harder  the  sub- 
ject, the  more  pains  must  be  taken  to  indicate 
the  close  logical  sequence  of  each  part  upon  that 
which  stood  before  it. 

A  transitional  sentence  sometimes  indicates 
merely  the  change  to  a  new  sub-topic  ;  but,  since 
human  memories  are  short,  is  is  often  advisable 
to  make  it  a  summary  of  the  preceding  para- 
graph, plus  the  topic  of  the  new.  Most  para- 
graphs, particularly  expository  paragraphs, 
have  a  topic  sentence  ;  and  this  should  if  possible 
be  framed  so  as  to  look  both  forward  and  back- 
ward; for  example:  ''We  not  only  wanted  to 
attempt  the  expedition,  as  I  have  just  explained, 
but  we  wanted  to  do  it  in  the  following  way." 
The  great  variety  of  possible  transitions  may  be 
guessed  at  from  the  few  specimens  given  below. 

Narration : 

\  2.   The  next  thing  we  did  was  to  chmb  the  bell-tower. 

•fl  3.  After  our  descent,  we  again  entered  the  cathe- 
dral, to  study  further  the  interior. 

^  4.  Although  we  found  the  interior  of  the  duomo  so 
wonderful,  we  were  wearied  out  at  last,  and  glad  to 
escape  into  the  freedom  of  the  square. 

Description  : 

^  2.   But  this  is  not  the  only  beautiful  part  of  the  island. 
^  3.    So  much  for  the  southern  shore. 
^  4.   Less  graceful,  perhaps,  but  more  picturesque  is 
the  western  side. 


148  THE  PARAGRAPH 

^  5.   There  are  no  cliffs  in  any  other  part  of  the  place, 
but  there  are  bright,  sandy  slopes  that  children  love. 

Exposition : 

^[  2.    A  better  way  of  starting  is  to  get  a  friend  to  help 
you  mount. 

•[[  8.    There  is  still  another,  though  not  a  better,  way 
of  learning  to  mount.     It  was  devised  for  lazy  people. 

^  4.    When  the  art  of  mounting  is  mastered,  the  next 
important  principle  is  to  keep  pedalling. 

^  5.   Whether,  then,  you  succeed  or  fail  in  this  point, 
you  nmst  notforgetthe  cardinal  docti-ine  of  all,  keep  cool. 

*ff  6.    Nevertheless,  the  actual  dangers  of  bicycling  are 
less  than  might  be  inferred  from  what  has  just  been  said. 

^  7.   At  the  same  time  there  are  other  dangers  besides 
those  resulting  from  accident. 

^  8.    Hence  a  person  of  weak  heart  must  be  content 
with  short  rides. 

If  9.    If  this  injunction  is  not  obeyed,  mischief  is  sure 
to  follow. 

IT  10.   But  this  is  not  all. 

^11.  These  warnings  are  not  numerous,  nor  hard  to 
remember. 

^  12.  Moreover,  warnings  are  never  to  be  taken  too 
anxiously. 

^13.  Let  us,  therefore,  give  ourselves  up  to  the  honest 
pleasures  of  wheeling. 

A  device  of  connection  capable  of  much  abuse, 
but  in  fact  rarely  abused,  is  the  use  of  repeated 
words  or  paragraph  echoes,^  which  carry  the 
mind  back  to  the  topic  of  the  former  paragraph. 

1  The  phrase  "echo  words"  is  Professor  J.  M.  Hart's. 
Handbook  of  English  Composition^  pp.  14,  31. 


JUNCTION  OF  PARAGBAPIIS  149 

The  orator  Burke  and  the  essayist  Arnold  were 
much  given  to  employing  this  device.  By  this 
method,  if  the  subject  of  one  paragraph  is  ele- 
gance, there  will  be  one  or  two  echoes  of  this 
word  in  the  next  paragraph.     Thus  : 

Elegance  seems  to  mean  a  union  of  richness  and  re- 
finement. A  piece  of  cloth  may  be  rich,  but  unless  it  is 
suited  to  I'efined  people  it  is  not  elegant.  And  since  the 
essence  of  refinement  is  more  like  simplicity  than  any 
other  one  quality,  then  a  cloth  must  be  both  rich  in  tex- 
ture and  simple  in  pattern  if  it  is  to  have  elegance. 

Of  course  elegance  is  not  the  only  quality  desirable  in 

fabrics.     For  cei-tain  purposes,  one  might  use  stuff  which 

could  only  be  described  as  gorgeous.      One  would   not 

wear  it,  but  one  might  make  sofa  pillows  of  it,  for  a 

_  summer  house. 

Introductory  sentences  may  serve  not  merely 
to  establish  close  sequence  of  thought,  and  so 
give  that  sense  of  ease  in  following  which  is 
so  grateful,  but  they  may  show  the  relative 
importance  of  the  ensuing  paragraph  as  com- 
pared with  the  preceding,  or  the  logical  re- 
lation of  the  one  to  the  other.  This  may  be 
done  by  downright  statement  of  the  relation, 
in  such  phrases  as  "  somewhat  less  important," 
" far  more  significant,"  "equally  valuable,"  "less 
interesting."  Sometimes  it  makes  all  the  differ- 
ence in  the  world  whether  the  writer  indicates 
at  the  beginning  of  a  group  of  facts  the  exact 


150  THE  PARAGRAPH 

light  in  which  he  sees  the  preceding  group.  If 
you  give  the  facts  merely  as  they  are  said  to  be, 
or  as  other  people  see  them,  but  not  as  you  your- 
self regard  them,  you  leave  the  paragraph  open 
to  misinterpretation  ;  not  so  if  you  begin  it 
thus  :  "  Though  all  this  is  true,  I  would  not 
have  you  give  it  undue  weight";  or,  "These 
facts  seem  unimportant,  but  they  must  not  be 
overlooked."  In  each  of  the  following  selec- 
tions, a  paragraph  is  followed  by  another  which, 
though  the  shorter,  is  directly  declared  to  con- 
tain the  more  important  matter. 

1.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  set  up  our  own  standard  of 
right  and  wrong,  and  judge  people  accordingly;  to  meas- 
ure the  enjoyment  of  others  by  our  own ;  to  expect  uni- 
formity of  opinion  in  this  world ;  to  look  for  judgment 
and  experience  in  youth;  to  endeavor  to  mould  all  dis- 
positions alike ;  to  look  for  perfection  in  our  own  actions  ; 
to  worry  ourselves  and  others  with  what  cannot  be  reme- 
died ;  not  to  yield  in  immaterial  matters ;  not  to  alleviate 
all  that  needs  alleviation  as  far  as  lies  in  our  power ;  not 
to  make  allowances  for  the  infirmities  of  others ;  to  con- 
sider everything  impossible  that  we  cannot  perform ;  to 
believe  only  what  our  finite  minds  can  grasp;  to  expect 
to  be  able  to  understand  everything. 

And  the  last  and  greatest  mistake  of  all  is  to  live  for 
time  alone,  when  any  moment  may  launch  us  into  eternity. 

2.  Every  healthy  boy,  every  right-minded  man,  and 
every  uncaged  woman  feels,  at  one  time  or  another,  and 
maybe  at  all  times,  the  impulse  to  go  a-fishing.  That  is 
what  fishes  are  for  —  to   call  us  away  from  newspapers 


JUNCTION  OF  PARAGRAPHS  151 

and  counting  rooms,  school  books  and  parlors  and  five- 
o'clock  teas,  out  into  the  open  of  existence  where  life  is 
real  and  banks  are  green,  skies  are  blue,  and  the  birds 
sing  in  the  branches  over  the  water. 

After  all  it  does  not  much  matter  what  fishes  are 
in  the  streams,  and  still  less  whether  you  catch  them. 
The  main  thing  is  the  breaking  away  —  the  getting  close 
to  nature.  As  for  the  men  who  strain  their  energies  "  to 
make  a  longer  string  or  fill  a  bigger  basket  than  any  '  fish 
hogs '  before  them,"  Dr.  Jordan  says  they  are  justly  ab- 
horred of  gods  and  sportsmen. 

Whenever  a  conjunction  begins  an  introduc- 
tory sentence,  it  should  indicate  the  relation  of 
the  entire  ensuing  paragraph  to  the  preceding. 
Certain  connectives  suggest,  without  direct 
statement,  that  the  ensuing  paragraph  is  at 
least  as  important  as  the  preceding ;  such  are 
and^  but^  therefore^  then,  accordingly ,  furthermore  ; 
others  hint  that  the  ensuing  paragraph  merely 
qualifies  the  preceding,  as  nevertheless,  however, 
to  be  sure,  at  the  same  time.  It  will  quickly  be 
seen  that  the  only  way  of  making  single  words 
refer  to  whole  paragraphs  is  to  make  the  sen- 
tences which  they  introduce  topic  sentences  ;  and 
in  most  cases  such  topic  sentences  must  general- 
ize the  thought  of  the  paragraph.  You  can 
hardly  say  "  nevertheless  "  unless  you  come  at 
least  as  near  to  summarizing  the  new  paragraph 
as  this  :  "  Nevertheless  the  facts  are  as  follows," 


152  THE  PARAGRAPH 

or,  "Nevertheless,  the  truth  is  as  foUows,"  or, 
"Nevertheless,  this  is  what  happened." 

Connectives  must  never  be  used  for  their  OAvn 
sake,  but  only  when  there  is  a  genuine  relation 
to  be  expressed.  It  is  easy  enough  to  say 
"therefore,"  but  suppose  you  ought  to  have 
said  no  more  than  "  and,"  if  even  that.  When 
the  new  paragraph  is  merely  additional  to  the 
preceding,  no  connective  is  really  needed ;  co- 
herent ordering  of  the  paragraph  topics  in  the 
outline  has  already  done  the  work.  Even  when 
a  connective  would  be  admissible,  as  in  the  case 
of  a  distinct  relation  of  cause  and  effect,  the 
paragraph  of  effect  sometimes  follows  better 
without  open  assertion  of  its  relation  to  the 
cause.  The  reader  does  not  like  to  expend  any 
more  energy  than  he  can  help,  Ave  say,  and  in 
general  this  is  true.  But  he  is  willing  to  go  to 
a  little  extra  trouble  to  understand  if  thereby 
he  secures  a  pleasant  shock  of  emphasis.  Show 
what  this  statement  means  as  applied  to  two  of 
the  following  paragraphs  : 

The  few  admonitions  that  the  boy  had  received  were 
all  the  more  effective  for  being  infrequent. 

"Henry,"  his  father  had  said  to  him  one  day  when  the 
child  was  seven,  "when  a  question  is  asked  you,  give  a 
direct  answer,  if  you  answer  at  all." 

There  are  not  many  men  in  existence  who,  in  thinking 


JUNCTION   OF  PARAGRAPHS  153 

and  in  speaking,  go  so  directly  to  the  point  as  does  Henry 
Worthington. 

One  or  two  other  pieces  of  intellectual  training  Alfred 
Worthington  had  vouchsafed  to  give  his  son. 

"  Never  seem  to  know  a  thing  when  you  don't,"  he  said. 
"  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  tell  my  son  not  to  pretend  to 
have  knowledge  that  he  hasn't,  and  I  mean,  too,  know 
when  you  don't  know  a  thing.  That  is  the  great  secret 
of  scholarship.  When  you  get  to  be  my  age,"  he  added, 
"  you  will  usually  find  that  whatever  it  is,  you  don't  know 
it."  —  Margaret  Sherwood  :  Henry  Worthington,  Idealist. 

Exercise  34.  {Written.}  Write  beginnings 
for  each  of  the  following  paragraphs.  Write 
only  one  sentence  if  it  can  be  made  to  refer  dis- 
tinctly to  the  topic  of  the  preceding  paragraph 
and  announce  the  topic  or  the  thought  of  the 
^^^ ensuing.  Otherwise  write  two  sentences,  one 
forming  a  transition  between  the  paragraphs, 
the  other  a  topic  sentence  for  the  new  one. 

MY   LIKES    AND    DISLIKES    AS   TO    NOVELS 

/  ...  I  can  however  take  refuge  in  that  well-w^orn  and 
much-abused  statement  that  "I  know^  what  I  like,"  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  my  likes  seem  to  change  pretty 
often  as  I  read  more.  Mr.  Kipling's  tramp  said  that  as 
for  life  "  he  liked  it  all,  except  when  too  long,"  but  even 
this  statemeiit  w^ould  not  hold  for  me  with  regard  to  fic- 
tion, for  some  of  the  longest  novels  are  those  that  I  like 
best. 
^  ...  For  example,  to  read  all  of  Sir  AValter  Scott  would 
be  rather  hard  for  me,  though  I  suppose  he  is  far  better 


J 


H 


y 


^ 


154  THE  PABAQRAPH 

worth  one's  while  than  many  a  modern.  I  have  never 
read  more  than  four  of  Thackeray's  long  list,  and  not 
more  than  six  of  Dickens's  still  longer  list.  There  seems 
to  be  something  in  novels  like  the  principle  of  sugar. 
You  eat  a  little  and  immediately  want  a  boxful  of  the 
same ;  but  after  eating  more  you  find  that  variety  in  the 
diet  is  essential. 

...  1  can  read  more  of  Mr.  Howells  than  I  can  of  Mr. 
James.  Mr.  Howells's  people  are  like  those  I  have  known, 
while  Mr.  James's  are  mostly  of  the  sort  I  have  never 
known,  and  should  be  afraid  of,  on  account  of  their  clev- 
erness, if  I  ever  did  meet  them.  I  once  heard  a  lecturer 
speak  of  Mr.  Howells  as  the  realist  of  "  average  "  social 
life,  and  of  Mr.  James  as  the  realist  of  '^exceptional" 
social  life. 

.  .  .  Some  realism,  for  example,  deals  with  what  seems 
to  me  utterly  repulsive  material.  I  cannot  bring  myself 
to  think  there  is  any  excuse  for  writing  about  hideous 
things  just  because  they  exist  in  the  world.  There  are 
such  persons  as  slatterns  and  drunkards,  just  as  there  are 
dirty  pools  of  standing  water.  And  it  is  the  business  of 
somebody,  perhaps  all  of  us,  to  be  interested  in  bettering 
the  condition  of  such  persons  and  such  places ;  but  why 
should  we  pretend  that  we  like  to  read  about  such  things 
merely  because  they  are  written  about  skilfully? 

.  .  .  Who  wants  to  go  to  the  trouble  of  making  way 
through  pages  of  strange  spelling  just  to  get  at  a  story? 
If  it  can  be  read  aloud  to  you  by  a  really  competent 
reader,  the  case  is  better.  But  even  Mr.  Barrie  and  Miss 
Wilkins  tire  me  far  more  quickly  than  they  would  if  they 
wrote  the  English  words  we  all  know,  and  the  spelling 
given  in  the  dictionary. 

...  I  like  particularly  that  kind  which  deals  with  past 
events.  It  isn't  so  much  that  T  think  myself  getting  a 
little  history  learned  in  a  cheap  and  easy  way,  as  the 


7 


ORDER   OF  SENTENCES  155 

genuine  delight  of  escaping  into  other  lands  and  times, 
away  from  those  very  people  whom  Mr.  Ho  wells  writes  of 
so  charmingly.  And  so  I  never  tire  of  D'Artagnan  and 
his  doughty  friends,  nor  even  of  those  recent  waiters  who 
follow  the  path  laid  out  by  Dumas.  I  like  Mr.  Weyman, 
Mr.  Merriman,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Castle,  and  Miss  Johnston. 
The  gay,  brave  figures  and  the  breathless  moments  of 
suspense  —  how  fine  they  are  in  contrast  with  my  daily 
round  of  geometry,  history,  composition,  lunch,  French, 
study,  study,  and  study ! 

...  It  isn't  often  that  one  novel  combines  both  these 
interests.  I  must  continue  to  like  the  realists  for  their 
truth  to  character,  and  the  romancers  for  their  gift  of 
wings  to  my  poor  imagination.  But  somehow  Thackeray 
at  his  best  seems  to  combine  both  interests.  I  have  read 
both  Esmond  and  Pendennis  through  twice,  and  I  shall 
find  them  both  worth  while  again. 

ExEKCiSE  35.  (  Written,  )  Examine  the 
first  two  sentences  of  each  paragraph  of  your 
themes,  and  make  such  changes  as  will  indicate 
more  clearly  the  relation  between  each  para- 
graph as  a  whole  and  the  preceding  paragraph 
as  a  whole. 

§    6.     Order  of  Sentences  in  the  Paragraph 

A,  The  Coherent  Order, — As  in  the  case 
of  ordering  topics  within  the  outline,  we  must 
order  sentences  within  the  paragraph  with 
reference  to  coherence  and  emphasis. 

The  reader  will  find  the  order  of  a  paragraph 
coherent  if  its  sentences  follow  each  other  in 


156  THE  PARAGRAPH 

the  order  of  time,  or  space,  or  facts  and  generali- 
zation, or  generalization  and  facts,  or  cause  and 
effect,  or  comparison.  Whatever  was  true  of 
the  coherent  order  of  paragraphs  is  true  of  the 
coherent  order  of  sentences.  In  actual  compo- 
sition, the  mind  is  sure  to  keep  turning  up 
memories  or  thoughts  at  some  little  distance 
from  the  place  where  they  belong.  This  kind 
of  error  is  detected  only  in  tlie  course  of 
revision.  ^— -  <^  .a^r— — ^ 

jA    Exercise    36.     (  Written, )      Criticize    the 

f  jfollowing  paragraphs,  placing  the  sentences  in 

^uch  order  that  things  which  belong  together 

will  be  spoken  of  togethex^     ^---'- — ^  '   '^' 

1.  The  magnifiQeiit  church  called  Westminster  is  situ- 
ated in  London  near  the  Parliament  Building.  The 
carvings  and  towers  make  this  a  very  noticeable  build- 
ing in  London.  Westminster  Abbey  is  the  burial  place 
of  some  of  the  world's  greatest  men.  The  guide  keeps 
you  very  much  interested  in  looking  at  the  tombs  of 
kings  and  queens.  On  account  of  Westminster's  high 
towers  it  also  is  considered  a  landmark  in  London.  For 
a  few  shillings  you  can  go  up  on  top  of  one  of  the  towers 
of  Westminster,  from  where  a  splendid  view  of  London 
can  be  obtained.  In  one  tomb  lie  the  two  little  princes 
who  were  assassinated  in  the  Bloody  Tower  in  the  Lon- 
don Tower.  Longfellow  is  the  only  American  poet  who 
has  a  bust  in  Westminster.  Going  into  Westminster 
Abbey  is  like  visiting  the  dead,  because  it  is  so  still  and 
aw^e-inspiring  inside  of  that  vast  church.    A  visit  is  made 


^ 


OEBEB   OF  SENTENCES  157 

more  interesting  by  buying  a  guide-book,  for  it  explains 
everything;  but  the  guide  is  very  competent. 

2.  A  fine  liberal  style  of  nature  it  seemed  to  be  :  hair 
crisped,  mustache  springing  thick  and  dark,  head  firmly 
planted,  lips  finished,  as  one  commonly  sees  them  in  gen- 
tlemen's families,  a  pupil  well  contracted,  and  a  mouth 
that  opened  frankly  with  a  white  flash  of  teeth  that 
looked  as  if  they  could  serve  him  as  they  say  Ethan 
Allen's  used  to  serve  their  owner  —  to  draw  nails  with.  I 
liked  the  sound  of  this  youth's  voice,  I  said,  and  his  look 
when  I  came  to  observe  him  a  little  more  closely.  This 
is  the  kind  of  fellow  to  walk  a  frigate's  deck  and  bowl 
his  broadsides  into  the  Gadlant  Thudnerbomhy  or  any 
forty-portholed  adventui-er  who  would  like  to  exchange 
a  few  tons  of  iron  compliments.  His  complexion  had 
something  better  than  the  bloom  and  freshness  which 
had  first  attracted  me; — it  had  that  diffused  tone  which 
is  a  sm^  index  of  wholesome  lusty  life. 

£^A  strict  enforcement  of  the  laws  against  child-beg- 
ging is  very  difficult  until  every  one  is  convinced  of  the 
cruelty  of  giving  money  to  unknown  children  on  the 
street  or  at  the  door. ^  One  boy  who  has  become  a  skilful 
beggar  teaches  anofner,  and  first  the  money  goes  for 
candy  and  cigarettes,  then  for  gambling  and  low  theatres. 

tySometimes  parents  connive  at  child-begging,  but  often 
they  know  nothing  of  it  until  the  children  have  grown 
incorrigible.  \^he  next  step  is  petty  thieving,  the  next 
burglary,  and  then  follow  commitment  to  a  reformatory, 
which  often  fails  to  reform,  and,  later,  a  criminal  career. 

>i  Of  all  charitable  practices  that  help  to  manufacture  mis- 
ery and  vice,  the  pi-actice  of  giving  to  child-beggars  on 
the  street  is  the  most  pernicious.  ^  have  seen  children 
travel  this  road  so  often  that  it  is^ifficult  to  speak  with- 
out bitterness  of  the  unthinking  alms  that  led  #hem  into 
temptation. 


ITHE  PABAtn/APH 

B.  The  Emphatic  Order,  —  We  have  seen 
that  most  compositions  shonld  begin  and 
end  with  emphatic  paragraphs.  Many  para- 
graphs should  begin  and  end  with  emphatic 
sentences.  Usually  the  last  sentence  of  the 
paragraph  should  be  more  emphatic  than  the 
first.  Sometimes  very  little  emphasis  is  needed 
in  the  first. 

Exercise  37.  QOral.)  Discuss  the  follow- 
ing paragraphs  one  by  one  with  reference  to 
these  questions  :  Does  the  nature  of  the  subject 
make  distinct  emphasis  desirable  in  the  first 
sentence  ?  Is  distinct  emphasis  present  here  ? 
Does  the  nature  of  the  subject  make  emphasis 
desirable  in  the  last  sentence?  Is  it  present 
here  ?  Which  sentence  of  the  paragraph  is  the 
more  emphatic,  the  opening  or  the  closing  ? 

1.  Indeed,  if  all  men  in  crowded  cars  should  resolutely 
keep  all  women  standing,  the  wrong  would  not  be 
righted,  because  women  would  submit  with  unselfish 
patience,  and  because  corporations  have  no  souls.  The 
better  plan,  therefore,  is  that  all  men  shall  refuse  to  see  a 
woman  stand,  because  if  men  are  really  discomforted  by 
their  own  courtesy  they  will  compel  redress.  —  George 
William  Curtis:  Essays  from  the  Easy  Chair, 

2.  During  my  father's  life  on  the  farm  I  w^as  almost 
constantly  with  him,  and  although  it  was  the  period  of 
his  greatest  hardship  and  disappointments,  he  was  never 
too  despondent  to  take  the  teiiderest  care  of  me.     He 


ORDEB   OF  SENTENCES  159 

always  made  me  and  his  other  children  feel  that  we  were 
of  the  greatest  importance.  If  I  was  cold  when  driving 
with  him,  he  would  wrap  me  in  his  own  coat,  and  on 
smooth  roads  he  always  allowed  me  that  greatest  pleasure 
of  small  boys  —  to  drive.  If  we  went  into  the  city,  he 
was  solicitous  that  I  should  have  my  food  at  regular 
hours,  and  was  always  as  thoughtful  and  gentle  as  a 
woman  in  his  care  for  me.  He  never  seemed  fretted  nor 
impatient,  although  cares  must  have  often  weighed 
heavy  on  his  mind,  but  always  quiet,  strong,  and  firm. — 
General  F.  D.  Grant,  in  The  Youth's  Companion. 

3.  The  table-cloth  in  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  great  pic- 
ture of  the  Last  Supper,  and  what  Da  Vinci  did  with  it, 
are  worth  remembering  just  here.  The  picture  has  been 
engraved  and  copied  all  over  the  world,  and  most  of  my 
readers  have  seen  reproductions  of  it,  with  the  wondei'ful 
figures  of  Jesus  and  of  St.  John  which  are  its  crowning 
glories.  But  when  it  was  first  exhibited,  it  is  said  that 
everybody  exclaimed,  "  How  marvellous  is  the  painting 
of  the  threads  of  the  table-cloth  ! "  until  Leonardo,  in- 
censed that  they  should  ignore  in  the  picture  what  was 
really  great,  for  something  that  was  an  insignificant 
detail,  seized  his  brush  and  impetuously  painted  the 
details  in  the  table-cloth  all  out.  It  was  a  fine  lesson  in 
proportion  which  we  may  recall  to  help  us  distinguish  in 
any  work  between  a  mere  ambition  to  excel,  and  an 
ambition  to  excel  in  what  is  vwrth  doing.  —  Bishop  H.  C. 
Potter,  in  The  Youth's  Companion. 

4.  It  is  all  nonsense  to  say  that  a  boy  cannot  control 
his  temper.  Did  I  not  see  you  the  other  day  in  a  passion 
when  working  on  the  road  ?  The  other  boys  laughed  at 
you,  and  you  looked  round  and  saw  your  best  girl  com- 
ing in  a  buggy,  looking  as  sweet  and  cool  as  a  rose  after 
a  shower,  and  in  a  second  you  were  all  smiles  and  took 
off  your  hat  to  her  and  felt  a  little  ashamed  of  yourself 


160  THE  PARAGRAPH 

all  that  day.  I  know  you  remember  that.  N"©  matter 
how  angry  you  are,  you  can  hold  your  tongue  —  when  a 
stranger  for  whom  you  have  great  respect  is  present.  If 
you  can  do  it  with  this  outside  help,  you  can,  if  you  try, 
do  it  without  it.  —  Henry  Wallace  :  Letters  to  the  Farm 
Boy. 

5.  You  are  likely,  as  you  approach  manhood,  to  put 
too  little  store  by  your  mother's  judgment.  When  a  boy 
gets  to  be  from  sixteen  to  nineteen  or  twenty  he  is  apt  to 
speak  lightly  of  women  and  try  to  break  away  from  his 
mother's  influence.  She  may  not  be  as  good  a  scholar  as 
you  think  you  are,  may  not  know  half  as  many  things, 
but  in  all  matters  that  affect  character  or  life,  your  Uncle 
Henry  would  take  her  judgment  offhand  in  preference  to 
yours.  When  you  get  to  know  women  better  than  you 
now  do,  you  will  find  they  have  a  very  queer  way  of 
guessing  at  the  rights  of  things  and  guessing  right  — 
nearly  every  time.  A  man  reasons,  a  woman  divines  ;  a 
man  thinks  things  out,  a  woman  feels  them  out.  Your 
mother  is  not  infallible,  nor  yet  perfect,  but  she  is  so 
nearly  certain  to  be  right  about  matters  that  affect  your 
character  and  life,  that  you  cannot  afford  to  treat  her 
intuitions  lightly.  If  you  do,  you  will  make  a  mistake. 
—  Henry  Wallace  :  Letters  to  the  Farm  Boy. 

6.  San  Juan  is  the  only  romantic  spot  in  California. 
The  country  here  for  several  miles  is  high  table-land, 
running  boldly  to  the  shore,  and  breaking  olf  in  a  steep 
hill,  at  the  foot  of  which  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  are 
constantly  dashing.  For  several  miles  the  water  washes 
the  very  base  of  the  hill,  or  breaks  upon  ledges  and  frag- 
ments of  rocks  which  run  out  into  the  sea.  Just  where 
we  landed  was  a  small  cove,  or  "  bight,"  which  gave  us, 
at  high  tide,  a  few  square  feet  of  sand  beach  between 
the  sea  and  the  bottom  of  the  hill.  This  was  the  only 
landing-place.     Directly  before  us,  rose  the  perpendicular 


OEDER    OF  SENTENCES  161 

height  of  four  or  five  hundred  feet.  How  we  were  to  get 
hides  down,  or  goods  up,  upon  the  table-land  on  which 
the  mission  was  situated,  was  more  than  we  could  tell. 
The  agent  had  taken  a  long  circuit,  and  yet  had  fre- 
quently to  jump  over  breaks,  and  climb  up  steep  places, 
in  the  ascent.  No  animal  but  a  man  or  a  monkey  could 
get  up  it.  However,  that  was  not  our  look-out ;  and 
knowing  that  the  agent  would  be  gone  an  hour  or  more, 
we  strolled  about,  picking  up  shells,  and  following  the 
sea  where  it  tumbled  in,  roaring  and  spouting  among  the 
crevices  of  the  great  rocks.  What  a  sight,  thought  I, 
must  this  be  in  a  southeaster !  The  rocks  were  as  large 
as  those  of  Nahant  or  !N"ewport,  but,  to  my  eye,  more 
grand  and  broken.  Besides  there  was  a  grandeur  in 
everything  around,  which  gave  almost  a  solemnity  to  the 
scene  :  a  silence  and  solitariness  which  affected  every- 
thing !  ]N'ot  a  human  being  but  ourselves  for  miles  ;  and 
no  sound  heard  but  the  pulsation  of  the  great  Pacific ! 
and  the  great  steep  hill  rising  like  a  wall,  and  cutting  us 
off  from  all  the  world,  but  the  "  world  of  waters."  — 
Dana  :  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast. 

7.  When  our  means  of  observation  of  any  natural  fact 
fail  to  carry  us  beyond  a  certain  point,  it  is  perfectly 
legitimate,  and  often  extremely  useful,  to  make  a  sup- 
position as  to  what  we  should  see,  if  we  could  carry  direct 
observation  a  step  further.  A  supposition  of  this  kind  is 
what  is  called  a  hypothesis,  and  the  value  of  any  hy- 
pothesis depends  upon  the  extent  to  which  reasoning  upon 
the  assumption  that  it  is  true  enables  us  to  explain  or 
account  for  the  phenomena  with  which  it  is  concerned. 

Thus,  if  a  person  is  standing  close  behind  you,  and 
you  suddenly  feel  a  blow  on  your  back,  you  have  no 
direct  evidence  of  the  cause  of  the  blow ;  and  if  you  two 
were  alone,  you  could  not  possibly  obtain  any ;  but  you 
immediately  suppose  that  this  person  has  struck  .you. 


162  THE  PARAGRAPH 

iSTow  that  is  a  hypothesis,  and  it  is  a  legitimate  hypothe- 
sis, first,  because  it  explains  the  fact ;  and  secondly, 
because  no  other  explanation  is  probable ;  probable 
meaning  in  accordance  with  the  ordinary  course  of 
nature.  If  your  companion  declared  that  you  fancied 
you  felt  a  blow,  or  that  some  invisible  spirit  struck  you, 
you  would  probably  decline  to  accept  his  explanation  of 
the  fact.  You  would  say  that  both  the  hypotheses  by 
which  he  professed  to  explain  the  phenomenon  were  ex- 
tremely improbable ;  or  in  other  words,  that  in  the  ordi- 
nary  course  of  nature  fancies  of  this  kind  do  not  occur, 
nor  spirits  strike  blows.  In  fact,  his  hypotheses  would 
be  illegitimate,  and  yours  would  be  legitimate ;  and,  in 
all  probability,  you  would  act  upon  your  own.  In  daily 
life,  nine-tenths  of  our  actions  are  based  upon  supposi- 
tions or  hypotheses,  and  our  success  or  failure  in  practical 
affairs  depends  upon  the  legitimacy  of  these  hypotheses. 
You  believe  a  man  on  the  hypothesis  that  he  is  always 
truthful ;  you  give  him  pecuniary  credit  on  the  hypothesis 
that  he  is  solvent. 

Thus,  everybody  invents,  and,  indeed,  is  compelled  to 
invent,  hypotheses  in  order  to  account  for  phenomena  of 
the  cause  of  which  he  has  no  direct  evidence ;  and  they 
are  just  as  legitimate  and  necessary  in  science  as  in 
common  life.  Only  the  scientific  reasoner  must  be  care- 
ful to  remember  that  which  is  sometimes  forgotten  in 
daily  life,  that  a  hypothesis  must  be  regarded  as  a  means 
and  not  as  an  end;  that  we  may  cherish  it  so  long  as  it 
helps  us  to  explain  the  order  of  nature  ;  but  that  we  are 
bound  to  throw  it  away  without  hesitation  as  soon  as  it 
is  shown  to  be  inconsistent  with  any  part  of  that  order.  — 
Huxley  :  Introductory  Science  Primer. 

8.  A  college  settlement  worker  has  said  that  ordinarily 
thrift  is  "  rather  demoralizing,  because  it  is  so  absorbing, 
so  limiting,  so  selfish."    If  she  means  by  thrift  a  mere 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  FORM         163 

accumulation  of  money,  one  can  but  agree  with  her 
entirely,  but  fortunately  thrift  should  not  imply  any- 
thing so  sordid,  and  one  does  not  have  to  subscribe  to 
a  theory  that  is  "  too  narrow  and  too  pessimistic  for 
serious  consideration."  Genuine  thrift  is  not  mere  sav- 
ing, but  rather  "  postponed  consumption,^'  a  laying  aside 
not  for  the  purpose  of  lioarding,  but  in  order  to  make  a 
future  purchase.  The  small  boy  who  pointed  to  a  penny 
bank  and  said  with  intense  pride,  "  I  banks  there,"  would 
have  been  no  better  for  his  emotion  if  his  conception  of 
what  money  is  had  not  got  beyond  the  belief  that  it  is  a 
commodity  to  hold.  The  value  to  him  of  his  bank  was 
that  he  was  learning  that  money  is  more  useful  at  one 
time  than  at  another,  and  that  by  depositing  it  in  some 
safe  place,  free  frou)  the  allurements  of  the  candy  or  the 
cigarette  shop,  he  was  reserving  it  for  a  more  profitable 
use.  The  whole  secret  of  right  thrift  lies  in  the  formula : 
Save  wisely,  so  as  to  be  able  to  spend  Judiciously  in  a  time  of 
need  which  will  probably  be  greater  than  thai  of  the  present. 
—  Mary  Willcox  Brown  :  The  Development  of  Thrift. 

Exercise  38.  (Written.^  Examine  the  order 
of  sentences  in  the  paragraphs  of  your  themes, 
and  make  any  changes  that  will  lend  the  para- 
graph greater  coherence  and,  when  appropriate, 
greater  emphasis. 

§  7.  Unity  and  Variety  of  Form  in  the  Para- 
graph. —  It  is  often  practicable  to  construct  all 
the  sentences  of  a  paragraph  on  about  the  same 
pattern,  thus  allowing  the  reader's  mind  to 
progress  with  more  ease  than  would  be  pos- 


164  THE  PARAGRAPH 

sible  if  it  contended  witii  wanton  changes  in 
the  sentence  type.  This  method  of  parallel 
structure,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  is  particu- 
larly appropriate  when  a  series  of  contrasts  is 
to  develop  the  paragraph.  Often  however  it 
is  a  nice  matter  to  decide  whether  the  paragraph 
should  preserve  this  unity  of  form  throughout, 
or  whether  some  variety  in  sentence  form  is 
needed  to  prevent  tediousness.  A  master  of 
style  like  Hawthorne  or  Stevenson  will  manage 
to  give  a  series  of  sentences  similarity  enough 
to  mark  the  paragraph  as  a  unit  in  form,  and 
yet  manage  to  satisfy  the  most  critical  ear  in 
its  desire  for  varied  rhythm.  Here  is  a  point 
at  which  the  muse  of  text-books,  if  there  is 
such  a  creature,  may  properly  cower  her  wing. 
We  can  do  no  more  than  point  out  pleasing  and 
unpleasing  parallelism,  and  urge  the  student  to 
test  his  own  paragraphs  to  the  best  of  his  own 
taste. 

Unity  of  form  is  pleasing  in  the  following 
paragraph  : 

Hence  a  world  of  incidental  inconsistencies.  We  are 
intolerant  of  dancing,  but  indulgent  toward  kissing 
games.  We  are  certain  that  if  we  drink  a  glass  of  beer 
we  shall  be  cast  into  a  lake  of  fire,  but  we  consume  hard 
cider  with  infinite  enjoyment,  and  confidently  look  for  ^ 
crown  of  glory  that  »fadeth  not  away.     By  no  possible 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  FORM        165 

device  of  rhetoric  could  you  persuade  our  best  deacon 
to  smoke,  though  he  raises  tobacco  by  the  acre  for  the 
use  of  his  countrymen.  None  of  us  will  steal  your  purse, 
yet  few  of  us  can  baffle  the  serpentine  temptation  to  cheat 
you.  We  think  it  sinful  to  tell  malicious  lies,  though 
meanwhile  we  believe  all  the  malicious  lies  that  come  to 
our  ears,  and  we  invariably  condemn  our  neighbor  un- 
heard. What  is  this  but  a  survival  of  stagnant,  unthink- 
ing Puritanism?  We  are  as  consistent  as  our  consecrated 
Pilgrim  ancestors,  who  never  went  to  plays.  Bless  you, 
no!  Instead,  they  went  to  hangings.  —  K.  L.  Harte  : 
A  New  England  Hill  Town. 

Unity  of  form  is  carried  to  dull  excess  in  the 
following  paragraph: 

Henry  unexpectedly  appeared  at  the  top  of  the  hillock. 
Then  Horace  appeared  at  the  top  of  the  hillock.  Then 
the  two  boys  from  New  Yoi-k  appeared  at  the  top  of  the 
hillock.  Finally  the  rest  of  the  party  showed  themselves 
at  the  top  of  the  hillock. 

It  is  impossible  to  make  out  from  the  preced- 
ing paragraph  whether  the  repeated  appearances 
"  at  the  top  of  the  hillock  "  were  comic  or  not ; 
if  comic  they  were,  it  is  still  not  necessary  to 
go  to  an  absurd  length  of  parallelism  in  order 
to  show  the  humor  of  the  situation.  The  para- 
graph might  read  as  follows  : 

Henry  unexpectedly  appeared  at  the  top  of  the  hillock. 
Then  Horace  appeared  at  the  top  of  the  hillock.  Evi- 
dently the  top  of  that  hillock  w^as  to  be  the  way  home  for 
the  deluded  party,  for  presently  in  the  same  place  two 


166  THE  PARAGRAPH 

more  figures  appeared  against  the  sky,  and  we  recognized 
the  boys  from  New  York.  Finally,  at  precisely  the  same 
spot,  the  rest  of  the  party  showed  themselves  in  a  dejected 
group. 

Exercise  39.  (  Written.^  Examine  the  par- 
agraphs of  your  themes,  and  consider  whether 
you  have  carried  uniformity  of  structure  far 
enough  in  each. 


V 


CHAPTER   III 
THE   SENTENCE   AS   A   PART   AND   AS    A   WHOLE 

§  1.  Unity  of  Thought  in  the  Sentence. — The 
making  of  really  good  sentences,  sentences  that 
have  varied  excellence  of  form  and  yet  weave 
into  each  other  like  the  threads  of  a  firm,  rich 
texture,  is  perhaps  the  hardest  task  of  the  sty- 
list. Though  we  can  expect  to  do  little  more 
than  approach  the  subject  at  the  correct  angle, 
we  can  at  least  learn  to  think  of  the  sentence  in 
its  twofold  character  —  as  a  part  of  the  web  of 
discourse  and  as  a  whole.  The  principles  that 
govern  thought-unity  in  a  sentence  are  the 
same  as  those  which  govern  thought-unity  in  a 
paragraph,  though  applied  on  a  smaller  scale. 
These  principles  are  however  much  modified 
by  the  principle  of  emphasis,  as  we  shall  see. 
Thought-unity  is  a  matter  of  the  sentence  as 
a  whole  ;  emphasis  is  partly  a  matter  of  the 
sentence  as  related  to  the  paragraph. 

Sentence-unity  of  time  is  easily  understood, 
but  like  paragraph-unity  of  time  is  not  often 
167 


168  THE  SENTENCE 

found  in  a  pure  form.  There  is  little  danger 
of  violating  it  by  the  introduction  of  an  utterly 
unrelated  time.  People  do  not  say,  "  We  break- 
fasted this  morning  from  seven  to  eight,  and 
we  were  in  Paris  from  1900  to  1902."  But  it 
is  easy  to  introduce  an  irrelevant  place  into  a 
time  sentence,  as  if  one  should  say,  "  We  break- 
fasted from  seven  to  eight,  in  the  red  room 
beside  which  the  poplar  tree  grows,  which  over- 
looks the  upland  meadow."  And  it  is  easy 
enough  to  saddle  upon  a  time  sentence  an  irrel- 
evant generalization,  as  if  one  should  say,  "  We 
breakfasted  from  seven  to  eight  in  the  red 
room ;  red  is  said  to  be  the  favorite  color  of 
women,  while  blue  is  the  favorite  color  of 
men." 

A  time  sentence  may  include  several  inde- 
pendent events,  if  the  mere  fact  of  their  having 
occurred  within  the  one  period  is  cause  enough, 
in  the  given  paragraph,  for  associating  them  ; 
thus :  ''From  eight  to  nine  the  following  things 
happened:  I  got  up;  I  bathed;  I  ate  two  boiled 
eggs  and  two  slices  of  toast,  and  drank  one 
cup  of  coffee ;  I  said  good-by  to  the  family ;  I 
got  to  the  corner  and  saw  a  car  go  by;  I  waited 
for  another,  got  on,  and  paid  my  fare ;  the 
cable    broke ;     I   had  walked   a   block   in    the 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  169 

direction  of  the  school  building  and  had  con- 
gratulated myself  on  general  rapidity,  when 
the  school  clock  struck  nine."  No  argument 
is  needed  however  to  show  that  this  type  of 
sentence  is  open  to  gre«it  abuse.  Mere  time  is 
a  weak  bond  with  which  to  tie  unlike  events 
together. 

Is  it,  then,  permissible  to  speak  of  nothing 
in  a  time  sentence  except  a  definite  period  of 
time  and  the  events  it  covered  ?  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  a  mark  of  great  skill  to  introduce 
places,  and  facts,  and  generalizations,  if  only 
they  bear  a  real  rehition  to  the  events  of  the 
sentence.  A  good  narrative  sentence  may  in- 
clude many  things,  but  the  bearing  of  each 
upon  the  chief  event  narrated  must  be  distinctly 
shown.  The  whole  must  impress  the  reader  as 
an  organized  unit,  each  part  performing  the 
work  of  a  living  organ. 

Unless  this  effect  is  aimed  at,  there  will  be 
lack  of  unity  in  all  sorts  of  narrative  sentences, 
whether  governed  by  time  or  not.  Suppose 
the  topic  of  the  paragraph  to  be  the  events  of  a 
morning,  to  be  developed  in  half  a  dozen  sen- 
tences. The  paragrapli  topic  forbids  introduc- 
ing anything  irrelevant  to  the  morning.  If 
now  we  write,  "We  were  up  at  five  and  had  a 


170  THE  SENTENCE 

dip  in  the  river,  and  enjoyed  it  very  much,  and 
went  to  breakfast,  and  had  ham  and  eggs,  and 
enjoyed  this  food  very  much,  and  then  prepared 
our  tackle  and  pushed  out  from  shore,"  we  have 
a  string  of  statements  l«ng  enough  to  make  a 
whole  paragraph,  and  that  before  our  morning's 
story  is  more  than  begun.  But  all  this  string 
of  and  clauses  may  be  organized  around  the 
most  important  statement  of  the  group  —  the 
statement  that  the  party  actually  pushed  off 
from  shore.  The  organized  sentence  would 
read  somewhat  on  this  wise  :  "  Realizing  that 
many  things  must  be  attended  to  before  the 
actual  start,  we  rose  at  five  and  had  a  dip  in 
the  river,  then  ate  ham  and  eggs  with  a  relish, 
prepared  our  tackle,  and  finally  pushed  off 
from  shore."  Again,  if  we  had  written,  "We 
took  a  dip  in  the  river,  which  flows  southward 
into  the  Gulf,  and  found  it  pretty  cold,"  we 
should  have  violated  both  paragraph-  and  sen- 
tence-unity by  the  introduction  of  an  irrelevant 
fact ;  but  this  fact  could  have  been  made  rele- 
vant by  subordinating  it  to  the  statement  that 
the  water  was  found  to  be  cold :  "  We  took  a 
dip  in  the  river,  which,  though  it  flows  south- 
ward into  the  Gulf,  proved  to  be  cold  enough 
here." 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  171 

Sentence-unity  of  place  is  hard  to  define, 
but  easy  for  a  close  reader  to  feel.  The  close 
reader  is  a  person  who  tries  to  reproduce  in  his 
own  mind  the  experiences  of  the  author  whom 
he  reads,  and  if  that  author  speaks  of  too  many 
objects  in  one  sentence,  the  reader  will  feel  the 
difficulty  of  imaging  them  all.  Several  phases 
of  a  thing  may  be  spoken  of  if  they  are  phases 
over  which  the  mind  can  flash  quickly.  They 
may  even  be  spoken  of  in  clauses  independent 
grammatically,  as,  for  example,  the  following: 

The  transparent  water  covers  its  blue  bed  with  a  pale 
topaz  tint ;  or,  lapping  the  edges,  it  sprinkles  the  sea- 
moss  every  minute  as  with  a  jet  of  pearls  ;  and  mean- 
while, all  round  the  island  shore,  it  draws  its  girdle  of 
fluttering  lace.  —  Taine  :  Journeys  through  France. 

But  just  as  it  is  well  for  one  principal  event  to 
govern  the  structure  of  the  entire  sentence,  so 
one  view  should,  preferably,  govern  the  descrip- 
tive sentence.  When  there  is  doubt  as  to  how 
much  one  view  includes,  it  is  well  to  err  on  the 
side  of  too  few  details,  and  to  make  the  descrip- 
tion rapid.  See  how  quickly  the  three  views 
included  in  the  second  sentence  following  flash 
into  one. 

Then  our  way  dipped  into  a  sandy  groove  bordered  by 
mud-walls  and  plantations  of  dwarf-palms.     All  at  once 


172  THE  SENTENCE 

this  groove  widened,  became  a  stately  avenue  guarded  by 
a  double  file  of  shattered  sphinxes,  and  led  toward  a 
lofty  pylon  1  standing  up  alone  against  the  sky.  —  Ed- 
wards :  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the  Nile. 

When  more  details  are  introduced  than  the 
reader's  mind  can  grasp  without  much  effort, 
space -unity  is  violated.  There  is  no  unity  of 
substance  in  a  sentence  like  the  following: 
"  The  walls  of  the  room  were  of  a  green  tint, 
the  carpet  was  green  and  buff,  while  all  around 
the  room  were  ornaments,  sucli  as  some  boys 
affect  —  stolen  signs,  and  pictures  of  pretty 
girls,  of  whom  one  was  a  brunette  with  large, 
dark  eyes  and  flashing  teeth,  and  with  black 
lace  over  her  head."  Space-unity  is  violated 
again  if  objects  remote  from  the  central  object 
are  described  without  reason,  as  if  one  should 
say,  "  The  mosaic  in  the  floor  of  the  cathedral 
floor  was  very  rich  and  beautiful,  representing 
scenes  from  the  life  of  the  patron  saint,  while 
the  belfry  was  adorned  with  numerous  statu- 
ettes." More  common  than  either  of  these 
types  of  bad  space-unity  is  that  which  consists 
of  introducing  irrelevant  events  or  generaliza- 
tions, thus  :   '•'  They  show  you  the  path  through 

^  Pylon.  A  massive  structure,  consisting  of  a  gateway 
flanked  by  two  short,  flat-topped  towers,  in  the  Egyptian 
style  of  architecture. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  173 

which  Marquette  walked  on  his  way  north, 
when  he  explored  this  great  north  country 
before  the  great  question  was  finally  settled  in 
the  war  of  the  revolution,  whether  America 
should  be  French  or  English,  and  it  led  me  to 
think  how  wonderful  was  the  faith,  and  the 
skill,  and  the  endurance  of  those  Jesuit  fathers, 
and  on  how  small  a  pin  the  great  affairs  of  this 
world  turn;  the  path  is  the  old  Indian  trail, 
about  three  feet  wide,  and  winds  in  among  the 
trees,  always  keeping  the  lake  in  sight." 

Sentence-unity  of  generalization  is  easy 
enough  to  master  if  one  knows  exactly  what 
one's  thought  is.  We  usually  give  a  whole  sen- 
tence to  the  general  statement.  Before  or  after 
this  we  group  the  facts  that  support  it,  placing 
them  all  in  one  sentence  if  they  are  few  and  of 
equal  importance,  but  grouping  them  in  several 
sentences  if  numerous.  Point  out  these  methods 
in  the  following  sentences. 

1.  Our  village  hfe  would  stagnate  if  it  were  not  for 
the  unexplored  forests  and  meadows  which  surround  it. 
We  need  the  tonic  of  wildness  —  to  wade  sometimes  in 
marshes  where  the  bittern  and  the  meadow  hen  lurk, 
and  hear  the  booming  of  the  snipe  ;  to  smell  the  whisper- 
ing sedge  where  only  some  wilder  and  more  solitary  fowl 
builds  her  nest,  and  the  mink  crawls  with  its  belly  close 
to  the  ground.  —  Thorkau  :  Walden. 


174  THE  SENTENCE 

2.  The  [trout's]  colour  was  all  that  can  well  be  desired, 
but  ill-described  by  any  poor  word-palette.  Enough  that 
he  seemed  to  tone  away  from  olive  and  umber,  with  car- 
mine stars,  to  glowing  gold  and  soft  pure  silver,  mantled 
with  a  subtle  flush  of  rose  and  fawn  and  opal.  —  Black- 
more  :   Crocker's  Hole. 

3.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  large  portion  of  his- 
tory which  relates  to  war  is  so  much  the  history  of  the 
triumphs  of  young  men.  Thus,  Scipio  was  twenty-nine 
when  he  gained  the  battle  of  Zana;  Charles  the  Twelfth, 
nineteen  when  he  gained  the  battle  of  Narva;  Conde, 
twenty-two  when  he  gained  the  battle  of  Rocroi.  At 
thirty-six,  Scipio  the  younger  was  the  conqueror  of  Car- 
thage; at  thirty-six,  Cortes  was  the  conqueror  of  Mexico; 
at  thirty,  Charlemagne  was  master  of  France  and  Ger- 
many; at  thirty-two,  Clive  had  established  the  British 
power  in  India.  Hannibal,  the  greatest  of  military  com- 
manders, was  only  thirty,  when,  at  Cannae,  he  dealt  an 
almost  annihilating  blow  at  the  republic  of  Rome  ;  and 
Napoleon  was  only  twenty-seven,  when,  on  the  plains  of 
Italy,  he  outgeneralled  and  defeated,  one  after  another, 
the  veteran  marshals  of  Austria.  —  Whipple  :  Success 
and  its  Conditions. 

If  the  general  statement  is  brief  and  not  very 
definite,  we  may  add  the  particulars  in  the  same 
sentence,  placing  the  colon  before  them  to  show 
that  facts  are  coming  which  explain  the  state- 
ment: 

-  This  is  one  of  the  most  important  services  which  liter- 
ature renders  to  its  lover :  it  makes  him  a  companion  of 
the  most  interesting  personalities  in  their  most  signifi- 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  175 

cant  moments  ;  it  enables  him  to  break  the  bars  of  indi- 
vidual experience  and  escape  into  the  wider  and  richer 
life  of  the  race.  —  H.  W.  Mabie:  Books  and  Culture. 

Unity  of  generalization  is  violated  when  a 
second  generalization  slips  in,  not  because  it  is 
relevant,  but  merely  because  some  word  sug- 
gested it,  thus:  "  Red  rooms  are  cheerful  rooms 
for  breakfast,  which  reminds  me  that  red  is 
said  to  be  the  favorite  color  of  women,  while 
blue  is  the  favorite  color  of  men;"  or  thus: 
"Red  rooms  are  cheerful  rooms  for  breakfast; 
how  good  a  hot  breakfast  tastes  on  a  winter 
morning  !  "  The  intruding  statement  need  not 
be  a  general  one ;  it  is  often  a  fragment  of  par- 
ticular narrative  or  description,  thus :  "  Red 
rooms  are  cheerful  rooms  for  breakfast,  which 
reminds  me  of  a  delicious  breakfast  I  once  ate 
in  Georgia."  But  the  commonest  form  of  bad 
unity  in  a  sentence  which  begins  with  a  gener- 
alization is  like  certain  ones  already  criticized 
on  pages  169  and  170.  To  the  generalization  is 
added  a  statement,  whether  general  or  particu- 
lar, which  really  bears  upon  it,  but  which  is  not 
seen  to  bear  upon  it,  owing  to  incomplete  or 
unhappy  wording.  No  one  can  easily  see  what 
reticence  and  bad  temper  have  to  do  with  each 
other  in  the  following  sentence  : 


176  THE  SENTENCE 

"  Milton  was  naturally  stern  and  reticent,  but 
he  allowed  nothing  to  ruffle  his  temper."  Yet 
this  is  merely  an  inexact,  incomplete  version  of 
Macaulay's  excellent  sentence  :  ''  His  temper 
was  serious,  perhaps  stern ;  but  it  was  a  tem- 
per which  no  sufferings  could  render  sullen 
and  fretful." 

Sentence-unity  of  cause,  or  effect,  or  cause 
and  effect,  is  not  hard  to  define  in  cases  where 
the  thought  is  definitely  expressed.  Whatever 
constitutes  a  cause  may  occupy  one  sentence, 
and  whatever  constitutes  the  effect  will  consti- 
tute the  next : 

King  George  could  not  see  that  there  were  two  Eiig- 
lands,  one  represented  by  Mmself  and  Lord  North,  the 
other  by  Burke  and  Chatham.  The  result  was  that  a 
thh'd  England  sprang  up  across  the  sea. 

When  concisely  worded,  both  cause  and  effect 
may  be  joined  in  one  sentence : 

A  friend  once  told  me  that  her  father,  though  a  man 
of  wealth,  could  not  endure  to  see  even  a  crumb  of  bread 
wasted,  because  in  early  life  he  had  been  wrecked  on  the 
coast  of  Arabia,  and  had  wandered  in  a  starving  condi- 
tion over  the  hot  desert  for  days,  w^hen  a  morsel  of  bread 
would  have  been  more  precious  to  him  than  all  the 
wealth  of  his  wrecked  ship. — T.  T.  Monger:  Lamps 
and  Paths, 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  177 

There  is  no  great  danger  of  violated  unity 
in  a  sentence  of  cause,  effect,  or  cause  and 
effect,  for  the  principle  of  unity  here  is  a  very 
strong  bond.  Still,  there  is  always  the  danger 
of  those  little  irrelevant  relative  clauses  which 
betray  the  ragged  fringes  of  one's  thought. 
You  can  imagine  a  sentence  like  this:  "The 
silk  hat,  which  seems  to  me  a  very  ugly  piece 
of  clothing,  is  sometimes  called  a  beaver,  be- 
cause high  hats  were  once  made  of  beaver-skin, 
which  is  a  kind  of  fur  that  one  does  not  often 
see  nowadays,  when,  as  Mr.  Seton-Thompson 
tells  us,  many  of  the  wild  animals  of  our  coun- 
try are  in  danger  of  speedy  extinction." 

Another  strong  princijjle  of  unity  is  that  of 
comparison  or  contrast.  Whatever  is  to  be 
compared  may ^ occupy  one  sentence,  followed  in 
the  next  by  whatever  it  is  compared  with.  The 
first  sentence  following  implies  a  comparison. 
The  second  and  third  state  it  directly. 

The  young  American  of  to-day  puffs  his  cigarette  in 
the  face  of  his  partner  on  the  balcony,  in  the  boat,  or  in 
the  wagon,  and  smiles  at  the  frilled  Lothario  of  yester- 
day bowing  in  his  flowered  coat  and  paying  stately  com- 
pliments as  stiff  as  her  brocade  to  the  dame  whom  he 
addresses.  The  youth  is  right  in  saying  that  the  flowered 
coat  and  the  stately  compliment  were  the  dress  and  the 
speech  of  an  old  sinner.     But  he  would  be  right  also  if 

N 


178  THE  SENTENCE 

he  remembered  that  familiarity  breeds  contempt,  and 
that  he  may  wisely  distrust  his  feeling  for  any  woman 
who  does  not  put  him  upon  his  good  behavior.  —  George 
William  Curtis. 

When  the  things  compared  are  concisely 
stated,  both  may  occupy  one  sentence.  In  the 
following  sentences,  the  things  contrasted  are 
separated  by  a  comma  or  a  semicolon,  according 
to  the  degree  of  separation  desired. 

1.  Many  of  the  noblest  w^orks  of  literature  are  in- 
tensely local  in  colour,  atmosphere,  material,  and  allusion ; 
but  in  every  case  that  which  is  of  universal  interest  is 
touched,  evoked,  and  expressed,  —  H.  W.  Mabie  :  Books 
and  Culture. 

2.  We  never  found  a  native  American  working  in  a 
sweatshop;  but  we  found  a  great  many  American  women 
working  in  their  own  homes  for  less  pay  than  is  paid  to 
the  people  in  the  shops.  —  Florence  Kelly,  testimony 
before  the  Industrial  Commission. 

3.  With  one  sheer  fall  of  a  hundred  fathoms  the  stern 
cliff  meets  the  baffled  sea  —  or  met  it  then,  but  now  the 
level  of  the  tide  is  lowering.  Air  and  sea  were  still  and 
quiet ;  the  murmur  of  the  multitudinous  wavelets  could 
not  climb  the  cliff;  but  loops  and  curves  of  snowy  braid- 
ing on  the  dark  gray  water  showed  the  set  of  tide  and 
shift  of  current  in  and  out  the  buried  rocks.  —  Black- 
more:  Frlda. 

Sentence-unity  of  comparison  is  not  easily 
violated  except  by  the  introduction  of  irrele- 
vant relative  clauses. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  179 

Exercise  40.  {Oral.)  The  following  sen- 
tences are  sufficiently  unified,  but  badly- 
punctuated.  Each  consists  of  two  statements 
closely  related  in  thought,  but  grammatically 
independent.  Some  clauses  are  punctuated  as  if 
dependent  grammatically.  What  change  in 
pointing  is  needed  in  order  to  permit  each 
sentence  to  retain  its  present  length  ?  ^ 

1.  Hardly  a  day  passed  that  we  did  not  kill  a  deer, 
consequently  our  larder  was  always  supplied. 

2.  a.  I  was  surprised  at  the  trees  and  flowers,  they 
were  all  in  full  bloom. 

b.  His  features  are  strong,  he  has  a  long  sharp  nose,  a 
straight  mouth,  and  a  bold  chin. 

c.  The  place  where  mother  and  child  are  seen  is  a 
gloomy  place,  huge  dark  rocks  surround  it. 

d.  The  rocks  were  all  sharp  and  jagged,  most  of  them 
were  granite  and  sandstone. 

e.  Back  of  the  cliff  the  land  slopes  gently  for  some 
distance,  then  there  is  a  huge  precipice  at  the  foot  of 
which  a  wide  beach  stretches  west. 

/.  The  third  story  of  the  Poet's  Corner  has  four  win- 
dows that  we  can  see,  at  least  they  look  as  if  they  were 
windows,  but  they  may  be  merely  paintings  made  to 
represent  windows. 

3.  Macbeth  becomes  a  hardened  criminal,  he  stops  at 
nothing  that  he  may  keep  the  kingship,  he  sacrifices 
many  lives  and  remains  unrepentant  to  the  last. 

1  Compare  A  First  Manual  of  Composition^  Index,  under 
"Punctuation;  the  Child's  Fault  in."  Also  Appendix  B 
of  the  present  work. 


180  THE  SENTENCE 

Exercise  41.  {Oral^  The  following  sen^ 
tences  contain  thoughts  that  cannot  readily  be 
unified.  Explain  how  they  should  be  broken 
into  units. 


1.  a.  The  following  morning  we  were  visited  again 
by  Mr.  Burchell,  who  worked  with  great  vigor  on  the 
fields  and  at  noon  we  dined  together. 

b.  Yery  soon  our  sail-boat  came  to  a  small  river  on  the 
other  side  of  the  bay,  which  we  ascended  for  a  little  over 
two  miles,  by  rowing,  and  then,  as  the  water  was  getting 
too  shallow,  we  could  go  no  further,  but  dropped  anchor 
for  the  night,  and  then  Jim  and  Joe  got  their  banjos, 
while  Rob  and  I  got  our  guitars,  and  we  all  sang  old 
songs  till  midnight. 
*^  c.  And  thus  will  the  city  have  more  lights  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  what  will  be  a  gain  in  lighting  to  the  city  will 
be  a  greater  loss  in  cash,  and  the  city's  loss  will  be  the 
water  works  company's  gain,  and  we  are  glad  of  it  so 
far  as  the  company  is  concerned,  for  the  company  was 
put  off  and  were  refused  a  renewal  of  its  contract  with 
the  city  at  terms  really  most  reasonable,  and  the  com- 
pany will  also  make  up  for  lost  time  now. 

2.  a.  The  house  is  painted  red,  and  was  built  about 
thirty  years  ago. 

b.  The  tower  is  not  built  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the 
street,  but  is  close  to  a  large  building  which  shows  much 
beautiful  architectural  decoration. 

c.  Leading  to  the  castle  is  a  road  that  seems  to  be 
crushed  stone,  with  strips  of  grass  growing  along  the 
sides,  and  a  stone  wall  on  one  side  and  an  old  rickety 
wooden  fence  on  the  other. 

3a.   Callista's  vision  is  the  most  pleasing  of  the  selec- 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  181 

tions,  and  the  last  part  of   it  is  written  with  awe  and 
reverence. 

b.  Milton  was  honest  and  resolute,  had  a  strict  sense 
of  duty,  worshipped  God  alone,  being  a  slave  to  no  vices, 
and  had  his  mind  fixed  on  a  high  ideal.  . 

Exercise  42.  (Written,')  Each  of  the  fok^ 
lowing  groups  of  sentences  is  derived  from  one 
original  unified  sentence.  Select  the  most 
important  statement  in  each  group.  Using 
this  as  the  main  clause,  try  to  reconstruct  the 
original  sentence,  leaving  out  any  unessential 
words,  and  changing  the  form  of  verbs  if  neces- 
sary. Unless  some  condensation  is  effected, 
you  will  have,  not  the  original  units,  but  long, 
unwieldy  single-sentence  paragraphs,  like  those 
previously  condemned  (§  3). 

1.  Many  charity  w^orkers  urge  young  girls  to  take  up 
service.  I  mean  domestic  service.  When  they  do  this, 
few  of  the  charity  workers  realize  how  poor  is  the  teach- 
ing in  economy  a  servant  gets  in  most  homes. 

2.  A  young  man  may  of  course  have  a  reasonably 
successful  life.  In  order  to  have  it  he  should  make 
reasonable  plans.  He  should  then  execute  them  with  a 
purpose.     His  purpose  should  be  fixed  and  steady. 

3.  I  know  not  what  impulse  moved  me.  But  I  heard 
Mr.  Manners  carelessly  humming  a  minuet.  My  grand- 
father was  meantime  explaining  to  him  the  usefulness 
of  the  wind-mill.  I  seized  hold  of  one  of  the  long  arms. 
It  was  swinging  by.  Before  the  gentlemen  could  prevent 
I  was  carried  upwards. 


J 


182  THE  SENTENCE 

Exercise  43.  (^Written.^  The  sentences 
given  below  lack  unity  because  the  wrong 
statement  is  selected  as  the  central  thought. 
Select  the  really  important  fact  in  each,  and  re- 
write the  sentence,  placing  subordinate  thoughts 
in  dependent  clauses. 

1.  [Paragraph  topic  :  "  An  Adventure  in  an  Ice-Boat."] 
The  last  week  of  my  vacation  it  was  Thursday  even- 
ing that  I  was  sailing  for  about  half  an  hour  and  was 
very  cold  when  I  saw  open  water  in  front  of  the  ice-boat. 

2.  [Paragraph  topic :  "  The  punishment  of  Antonio 
and  Bassanio,  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice.'] 

The  only  way  in  which  Signors  Antonio  and  Bas- 
sanio were  punished  was  that  they  were  not  careful 
enough  when  they  made  the  bond,  and  in  that  way 
Bassanio  came  very  near  losing  one  of  his  best  friends. 

EXEKCISE  44.  (^Written.^  Think  over  the 
following  sentences  and  try  to  imagine  just 
what  the  writers  of  them  meant.  Write  out 
a  unified  version  of  each  sentence.  The  class 
might  select  by  vote  the  best  of  the  versions 
offered : 

Macaulay  is  imaginative,  and  frequently  becomes  en- 
thusiastic almost  to  extravagance. 

Collins  seems  a  truly  great  singer,  one  who  surpasses 
even  Gray  in  his  landscape  painting. 

Cardinal  Newman  was  a  sound  thinker,  and  puts  his 
thoughts  on  paper  without  sending  them  through  a  long 
process  of  elaboration. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  183 

When  we  speak  warmly  and  emphatically, 
we  speak  in  short  sentences.  When  we  speak 
coolly  and  with  care,  taking  pains  to  point  out 
fine  distinctions  of  thought,  and  to  qualify  every 
statement  properly,  our  sentences  become  longer. 
When  however  we  explain  a  difficult  thought 
piece  by  piece,  because  the  audience  must  un- 
derstand each  step  before  the  next  can  be  taken, 
our  sentences  grow  short  again.  When  we  give 
the  details  on  which  a  statement  is  based,  the 
sentence  naturally  stretches  itself  out.  When 
at  last  we  sum  up,  the  general  statement  must 
be  short,  to  be  grasped  as  a  Avhole. 

Point  out  the  statements  that  express  strong 
feeling  and  are  made  more  emphatic  by  being 
expressed  in  sliort  sentences  : 

1.  Else,  if  you  would  be  a  man,  speak  what  you  think 
to-day  in  words  as  hard  as  cannon  balls,  and  to-morrow 
speak  what  to-morrow  thinks  in  hard  words  again,  though 
it  contradict  everything  you  said  to-day.  Ah,  then,  ex- 
claim the  aged  ladies,  you  shall  be  sure  to  be  misunder- 
stood. Misunderstood  !  It  is  a  right  fool's  word.  Is  it 
so  bad,  then,  to  be  misunderstood  ? 

2.  We  passed  the  home  of  a  French  Canadian  known 
in  the  valley  as  Bumblebee.  The  house  is  twelve  feet 
long  by  ten  feet  deep.  The  ridgepole  is  twelve  feet  from 
the  ground.  The  chimney  is  a  piece  of  stove-pipe.  The 
walls  are  made  of  boards,  battened,  and  the  roof  is  un- 
shingied.     Bumblebee  has  five  children,  the  eldest  being 


184  THE  SENTENCE 

eight.  His  wife's  mind  is  affected.  The  standing  tim- 
ber, the  mill,  the  lumber  railway,  and  many  of  the  dwell- 
ings and  small  farms  belong  to  non-residents,  whose  only 
object  is  to  shear  the  mountains,  squeeze  the  laborers, 
and  keep  Congress  from  putting  lumber  on  the  free  list.  — 
BoLLES  :  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp  Water. 

3.  Exhaustion  of  nervous  energy  always  lessens  the 
inhibitory  power.  Who  is  not  conscious  of  this?  "  Irri- 
tability "  is  one  manifestation  of  this.  Many  persons 
have  so  small  a  stock  of  reserve  brain-power  —  that  most 
valuable  of  all  brain  qualities  —  that  it  is  soon  used  up, 
and  you  see  at  once  that  they  lose  their  power  of  self- 
control  very  soon.  They  are  angels  or  demons  just  as 
they  are  fresh  or  tired.  .  .  .  Woe  to  the  man  who  uses 
up  his  surplus  stock  of  brain-inhibition  too  near  the 
bitter  end,  or  too  often  !  —  T.  S.  Cloustox,  M.D.  :  Clini- 
cal Lectures  on  Mental  Diseases. 

Why,  in  your  opinion,  did  not  Garrison,  the 
great  abolitionist,  print  the  following  state- 
ments as  five  sentences  ?  Would  this  use 
of  dashes  be  permissible  in  ordinary  theme- 
writing  ?  ''I  am  in  earnest  —  I  will  not 
equivocate  —  I  will  not  excuse  —  I  will  not 
retreat  a  single  inch  —  and  I  will  be  heard!" 

Show  how  in  the  following  paragraphs  the 
authors  use  short  sentences  to  present  a  difficult 
matter  in  small  parts,  each  of  which  must  be 
understood  before  the  train  of  thought  goes  on  : 

1.  The  place  where  the  accident  occurred  was  like 
this.      The  river  was  narrow,  perhaps   a   quarter   of   a 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  185 

mile  wide.  The  left  bank  was  a  sheer  wall  of  rock,  pre- 
venting escape  that  way.  The  right  was  low,  and  ran 
out  in  a  sharp  point  for  fifty  feet.  On  this  point  was  a 
small  wharf,  and  beside  it  a  boat.  The  current  here  was 
very  swift.  The  capsizing  occurred  just  above  this  point. 
Had  it  occurred  below  the  wharf,  the  chances  of  rescue 
would  have  been  small. 

2.  Under  the  long,  level,  black  cloud,  from  which  zig- 
zag lightning  darted  downward  like  a  snake's  tongue, 
were  three  zones  of  color.  The  first,  nearest  the  east, 
and  at  the  head  of  the  storm  as  it  moved  forward,  was 
gray.  It  was  formed  of  scud.  The  second  was  black, 
and  from  it  shot  most  of  the  lightning.  The  third  was 
snowy  white  shaded  by  perpendicular  lines.  This  was 
the  rain.  Each  belt  seemed  to  be  two  miles  or  more  in 
width,  and  the  whole  was  moving  about  twenty  miles 
an  hour.  —  Bolles  :  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp  Water. 

3.  But  of  all  the  sunrises  whose  record  I  have  kept, 
the  one  I  shall  longest  and  most  vividly  remember  is  one 
in  which  I  saw  no  sun.  I  opened  my  eyes  upon  a  snow- 
storm, as  still  and  pauseless  and  beautiful  as  one  in 
New  England.  The  whole  sky  was  of  that  exquisite 
clear  gray  which  we  never  see  except  as  the  background 
for  thick-falling  snowflakes.  While  T  lay  dreamily  watch- 
ing it,  I  suddenly  thought  I  detected  a  faint  rosy  tint  in 
the  atmosphere.  It  could  not  be  !  Xo  sunrise  tint  could 
pierce  through  that  thick  gray !  But  it  was.  It  did. 
The  color  deepened.  Rosier  and  rosier,  redder  and  red- 
der grew  the  gray  wall,  until  I  sprang  to  the  window 
and  with  incredulous  eyes  gazed  on  a  sight  so  weirdly 
beautiful  that  my  memory  almost  distrusts  itself  as  I 
recall  the  moment.  The  whole  eastern  and  southern  sky 
was  deep  red,  —  vivid  yet  opaque.  The  air  was  filled 
w^th  large  snowflakes.  As  they  slowly  floated  down, 
each  starry  crystalline   shape   stood   out  with   dazzling 


186  THE  SENTENCE 

distinctness  on  the  red  background.  It  was  but  for  a 
moment.  As  mysteriously  as  it  had  come  the  ruddy 
glow  disappeared ;  the  sky  and  the  falling  flakes  all 
melted  together  again  into  soft  white  and  gray,  and  not 
until  another  day  did  we  see  the  sun  which  for  that  one 
brief  moment  had  crimsoned  our  sky.  —  "  H.  H." :  Bits 
of  Travel  at  Home. 

In  the  following,  point  out  the  short  sen- 
tences of  general  statement,  the  short  sentences 
of  summary  or  introduction,  and  the  long  sen- 
tences of  detail. 

1.  The  criticism  was  humane,  lofty,  wise,  sparkling ; 
the  anecdote  so  choice  and  apt,  and  trickling  from  so 
many  sources,  that  we  seemed  to  be  hearing  the  best 
things  of  the  wittiest  people.  It  was  altogether  delight- 
ful, and  the  audience  sat  glowing  with  satisfaction. 
There  was  no  rhetoric,  no  gesture,  no  grimace,  no  dra- 
matic familiarity  and  action ;  but  the  manner  was  self- 
respectful  and  courteous  to  the  audience,  and  the  tone 
supremely  just  and  sincere.  "  He  is  easily  king  of  us 
all,"  whispered  an  orator.  —  George  William  Curtis: 
Emerson  the  Lecturer. 

2.  Society  is  commonly  too  cheap.  We  meet  at  very 
short  intervals,  not  having  had  time  to  acquire  any  new 
value  for  each  other.  We  meet  at  meals  three  times  a 
day,  and  give  each  other  a  new  taste  of  that  old  musty 
cheese  that  we  are.  We  have  had  to  agree  on  a  certain 
set  of  rules  called  etiquette  and  politeness,  to  make  this 
frequent  meeting  tolerable,  and  that  we  need  not  come  to 
open  war.  We  meet  at  the  post-office,,  and  at  the  socia- 
ble, and  about  the  fireside  every  night;  we  live  thick  and 
are  in  each  other's  way,  and  stumble  over  one  another. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  187 

and  I  think  that  we  thus  lose  some  respect  for  one 
another.  .  .  .  The  value  of  a  man  is  not  in  his  skin,  that 
we  should  touch  him.  —  Thoreau  :  Walden. 

3.  I  have  watched  the  career  of  many  such  people. 
They  get  to  be  twenty,  and  have  no  plan  or  purpose; 
but  they  must  do  something,  and  so  they  drop  into  the 
first  situation  that  offers  itself,  without  any  consideration 
of  their  fitness  for  it.  They  take  up  their  father's  occu- 
pation, though  they  may  dislike  it;  or  get  a  clerkship, 
but  with  no  purpose  or  conception  of  becoming  a  mer- 
chant ;  or,  driven  by  necessity,  select  some  easy  trade  or 
drop  into  unskilled  labor,  but  save  nothing,  learn  noth- 
ing, and  keep  on  in  a  listless  way,  hoping  something 
better  will  turn  up.  By  and  by  they  marry.  This  re- 
quires them  to  work  a  little  harder  and  to  spend  more 
carefully;  but  the  question  is  now  settled,  and  poverty 
and  drudgery  are  their  lot  in  the  future.  —  T.  T.  Hun- 
ger :  Lamps  and  Paths. 

Ill  briefly  presenting  contrasts,  the  ordinary 
method  is  to  put  both  parts  of  the  antithesis  in 
one  sentence,  for  the  sake  of  closer  unity.  We, 
have  already  seen  examples  of  this  method,  but 
here  are  a  few  more  : 

1.  In  all  ages  men  have  committed  acts  of  violence 
against  each  other  in  hot  blood;  but  the  doctor  would 
probably  say  that  a  much  greater  number  have  shortened 
life,  besides  impairing  its  quality,  by  the  nervous  expen- 
diture wasted  upon  an  irritable  temper. 

2.  The  blackbirds  pop  them  oft  entire,  and  so  do  the  star- 
lings ;  but  the  thrushes  sit  and  peck  at  them,  with  the  juice 
dripping  down  on  their  dappled  breasts,  and  a  flavor  in 
their  throats  which  they  mean  to  sing  about  at  their  leisure. 


188  THE  SENTENCE 

3.  I  have  often  had  opportunities  to  give  the  poor 
tickets  for  Christmas  dinners,  free  treats,  and  general 
charitable  distributions,  but,  as  I  have  come  to  know  the 
poor  better,  and  to  care  more  for  their  welfare,  I  have 
learned  to  resent  a  charity  that  would  help  them  in 
droves,  as  if  they  were  cattle.  —  Mary  E.  Richmond  : 
Friendly  Visiting  among  the  Poor. 

But  if  the  paragraph  is  not  very  long,  and  each 
part  of  the  contrast  is  very  emphatically  felt, 
a  period  may  separate  even  very  short  state- 
ments. Macaulay  breaks  into  his  antitheses 
with  the  period  so  often  that  he  sometimes 
cheats  the  reader  out  of  the  logical  unit,  and 
lessens  his  rate  of  progress  in  reading. 

1.  Now,  John  Pike  was  beyond  his  years  wary  as  well 
as  enterprising,  calm  as  well  as  ardent,  quite  as  rich  in 
patience  as  in  promptitude  and  vigour.  But  Alec  Bolt 
was  a  headlong  youth,  volatile,  hot,  and  hasty,  fit  only  to 

■  fish  the  Maelstrom,  or  a  torrent  of  new  lava.  —  Black- 
more  :   Crocker's  Hole. 

2.  No,  I  am  too  much  a  lover  of  genius,  I  sometimes 
think,  and  too  often  get  impatient  with  dull  people,  so 
that,  in  their  weak  talk,  where  nothing  is  taken  for 
granted,  I  look  forward  to  some  future  possible  state  of 
development,  when  a  gesture  passing  between  a  beatified 
human  soul  and  an  archangel  shall  signify  as  much  as 
the  complete  history  of  a  planet,  from  the  time  when  it 
curdled  to  the  time  when  its  sun  was  burned  out.  And 
yet,  when  a  strong  brain  is  weighed  with  a  true  heart, 
it  seems  to  me  like  balancing  a  bubble  against  a  wedge 
of  gold.  —  Holmes  :   The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  189 

3.  A  little  boy  dressed  up  very  fine,  who  puts  his 
finger  in  his  mouth  and  takes  to  crying,  if  other  boys 
make  fun  of  him,  looks  very  silly.  But  if  he  turns  red 
in  the  face  and  knotty  in  the  fists,  and  makes  an  example 
of  the  biggest  of  his  assailants,  throwing  off  his  fine 
Leghorn  and  his  thickly-buttoned  jacket,  if  necessary,  to 
consummate  the  act  of  justice,  his  small  toggery  takes 
on  the  splendors  of  the  crested  helmet  that  frightened 
Astyanax.  You  remember  that  the  Duke  said  his  dandy 
officers  were  his  best  officers.  The  "  Sunda}^  blood,"  the 
super-superb  sartorial  equestrian  of  our  annual  Fast-day, 
is  not  imposing  or  dangerous.  But  such  fellows  as 
Brummel  and  D'Orsay  and  Byron  are  not  to  be  snubbed 
quite  so  easily.  —  Holmes:  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast 
Table. 

From  what  has  been  said,  we  may  suspect 
that  the  relative  emphasis  of  a  statement  as  a 
part  of  the  paragraph  is  often  the  only  means 
of  deciding  whether  it  should  be  closed  with  a 
period  or  with  a  semicolon.  Is  it  possible  to 
tell,  without  knowing  the  rest  of  the  para- 
graphs in  which  they  occur,  whether  the  follow- 
ing sentences  are  judiciously  punctuated  or  not  ? 

1.  Against  constant  wind  and  rain,  many  houses  are 
caparisoned  with  slates,  wings,  and  extra  roofs ;  the 
cracked  and  moss-grown  slates  rattle  up  and  down,  and 
the  house  looks  like  a  half-scaled  lizard.  —  Taine  :  Jour- 
neys through  France. 

2.  In  speaking  of  what  is  hateful,  gentle  natures 
always  speak  with  reserve ;  they  spai'e  others  and  them- 
selves. —  JOUBERT. 


190  THE  SENTENCE 

3.  Simplicity  increases  in  value  the  longer  we  can 
keep  it,  and  the  farther  we  carry  it  onward  into  life ; 
the  loss  of  a  child's  simplicity,  in  the  inevitable  lapse  of 
years,  causes  but  a  natural  sigh  or  two,  because  even  his 
mother  feared  that  he  could  not  keep  it  always.  —  Haw- 
thorne :   The  Marble  Faun. 

The  problem  becomes  clearer  if  we  take 
long  compound  sentences.     Here  are  two: 

1.  Electric  heat,  as  here  supplied,  is  incomparably 
superior  to  flame  :  it  can  be  turned  on  or  oft'  by  a  touch ; 
it  is  safe  as  no  other  heat  is  safe ;  it  is  unaccompanied 
by  smoke  or  dust ;  all  its  appliances  are  as  portable  as  a 
hand-lamp ;  and  an  automatic  regulator  may  control  its 
temperature  and  adjust  it  either  to  simmering  a  bowl  of 
gruel  or  baking  a  joint.  —  Iles  :  Flame,  Electricity,  and 
the  Camera. 

2.  The  sun,  in  almost  every  garden,  sucks  the  beauty 
out  of  all  the  flowers  ;  he  stains  the  sweet  violet  even  in 
March ;  he  spots  the  primrose  and  the  periwinkle ;  he 
takes  the  down  off  the  heart's-ease  blossom ;  he  browns 
the  pure  lily-of-the-valley  in  Ma}^;  and,  after  that,  he 
dims  the  tint  of  every  rose  that  he  opens ;  and  jet,  in 

.  spite  of  all  his  mischief,  which  of  them  does  not  rejoice 
in  him  ?  —  Holmes  :   llie  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

Either  of  these  sentences  is  long  enough  to 
make  a  good  paragraph.  Apparently  the  only 
reason  why  they  are  not  printed  as  respectively 
six  and  seven  short  sentences  is  that  the  para- 
graphs in  which  they  belong  had  more  important 
things  to  say  in  their  short  sentences. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT      •  191 

Let  us  take  a  few  paragraphs,  therefore,  which 
show  the  complete  relation  between  the  larger 
unit  and  its  parts  with  ""regard  to  the  matter 
of  relative  emphasis.  Point  out  the  more 
emphatic  and  the  less  emphatic  statements,  as 
indicated  by  the  punctuation. 

1.  A  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  times  is  the  growing 
respect  for  what  are  called  "the  bread-and-butter  sci- 
ences." Modern  methods  of  education  look  more  and 
more  toward  inspiring  our  boys  and  girls  with  respect  for 
work,  and  preparing  them  for  honest  industry  by  putting 
them  in  possession  of  all  their  faculties.  The  field  of 
skilled  labor  is  constantly  widening ;  the  artisans  of  the 
twentieth  century  will  claim  closer  kinship  with  the 
artists;  brain  will  guide  and  reenforce  muscle  in  field 
and  kitchen,  toil  will  be  lightened  by  invention,  and  in 
good  time  by  shorter  hours. 

2.  Think  of  the  importance  of  friendship  in  the  edu- 
cation of  men.  It  will  make  a  man  honest ;  it  will  make 
him  a  hero ;  it  will  make  him  a  saint.  It  is  the  state  of 
the  just  dealing  with  the  just,  the  magnanimous  w^ith  the 
magnanimous,  the  sincere  with  the  sincere,  man  with  man. 
—  Thoreau:  a  Week  on  the  Concord  and  M err imac  Rivers. 

3.  There  are  some  who  think  it  a  pity  that,  out  of 
their  slender  store,  the  poor  should  give  to  the  still 
poorer ;  they  feel  that  the  rich  should  relieve  the  poor  of 
this  burden.  But  relief  given  without  reference  to  friends 
and  neighbors  is  accompanied  by  moral  loss  ;  poor  neigh- 
borhoods are  doomed  to  grow  poorer  and  more  sordid, 
whenever  the  natural  ties  of  neighborliness  are  weakened 
by  our  well-meant  but  unintelligent  interference.  —  Mary 
E.  Richmond  :  Friendly  Visiting  among  the  Poor. 


192  ,  THE  SENTENCE 

4.  The  development  of  the  imagination,  upon  the 
power  of  which  both  absorption  of  knowledge  and  creative 
capacity  depend,  is,  therefore,  a  matter  of  supreme  im- 
portance. To  this  necessity  educators  will  some  day 
open  their  eyes,  and  educational  systems  will  some  day 
conform  ;  meantime,  it  must  be  done  mainly  by  individual 
work.  —  H,  W.  Mabie  :  Books  and  Culture, 

The  commonest  case  in  which  a  sentence 
should  be  reduced  from  its  rank  to  that  of  a 
semicolon  clause,  or  compounding  sentence,^  is 
when  a  second  statement  merely  repeats  the 
thought  of  the  preceding  one  in  but  slightly 
different  words.  The  correct  punctuation  is 
shown  below. 

1.  A  true  critic  must  love  the  subject-matter  of  litera- 
ture ;  he  must  care  for  its  message  ;  the  theme  of  the  story, 
the  thing  the  author  was  trying  to  say,  must  not  escape 
him.     The  form  of  the  thing  is  much,  but  the  soul  is  more. 

2.  Wellington  said  that  IN'apoleon's  presence  in  the 
French  army  was  equivalent  to  forty  thousand  additional 
soldiers;  and  in  a  legislative  assembly,  Mirabeau  and 
John  Adams  and  John  Qnincy  Adams  are  not  simply 
persons  who  hold  a  single  vote,  but  forces  whose  power 
thrills  through  the  whole  mass  of  voters.  —  E.  P.  Whipple  : 
Success. 

3.  The  brain-women  never  interest  us  like  the  heart- 
w^omen  ;  white  roses  please  less  than  red.  But  our  North- 
ern seasons  have  a  narrow  green  streak  of  spring,  as 
well  as  a  broad  white  zone  of  winter,  —  they  have  a  glow- 

iPor  this  term,  see  A  First  Manual  of  Composition, 
Index,  under  "  Sentence." 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  193 

ing  band  of  suranier  and  a  golden  stripe  of  autumn  in 
their  many-colored  wardrobe ;  and  women  are  born  that 
wear  all  these  hues  of  earth  and  heaven  in  their  souls.  — 
Holmes  :   The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

Now,  the  young  writer  is  far  more  apt  to 
over-emphasize  than  to  under-emphasize,  as 
soon  as  he  learns  to  make  independent  sen- 
tences rather  than  strings  of  ajid  and  but 
clauses.  He  sometimes  even  goes  to  the  length 
of  writing  mere  phrases  as  if  they  were  sen- 
tences, a  practice  which,  if  continued,  makes  it 
impossible  for  him  to  produce  an  emphatic 
effect  when  he  needs  one.     The  error  is  like  this  : 

The  attack  came.  On  their  front,  flank,  and  rear. 
The  suddenness  preventing  their  being  able  to  help  them- 
selves. 

Occasionally  a  writer  of  reputation  falls  into 
the  same  habit.  Mr.  Kipling,  a  very  powerful 
writer  in  many  ways,  sometimes  produces  a 
legitimate  effect  by  setting  off  a  phrase  between 
periods,  but  as  often  he  conveys  by  this  means 
merely  a  sense  of  jerkiness  or  of  pounding. 
Examine  the  following  sentences  by  Mr. 
Winston  Churchill  and  Mr.  Paul  Ford,  and  say 
whether  anything  seems  to  you  to  have  been 
gained  by  the  violation  of  grammatical  punc- 
tuation. 


194  THE  SENTENCE 

1.  I  was  as  a  man  without  a  tongue,  my  hunger  gone 
from  sheer  happiness  —  and  fright.  And  yet  eating  the 
breakfast  with  a  relish  because  she  had  made  it. — 
Churchill  :  Richard  Carvel. 

2.  a.  Leonore  went  to  a  gallery.  There  was  Peter ! 
She  went  to  a  concert.  Ditto,  Peter !  She  visited  the 
flower  show.  So  did  Peter!  She  came  out  of  church. 
Behold  Peter !  In  each  case  with  nothing  better  to  do 
than  to  see  her  home. 

h.  I  was  laid  up  for  eight  months  by  my  eyes,  part 
of  the  time  in  Paris.  The  primary  in  the  meantime  had 
put  up  a  pretty  poor  man  for  an  office.  A  fellow  who 
had  been  sentenced  for  murder,  but  had  been  pardoned 
by  political  influence. 

c.  '' No,"  said  Leonore,  ^- 1  haven't  finished.  Tell  me. 
Can't  you  make  the  men  do  what  you  want,  so  as  to  have 
them  choose  only  the  best  men  ?  " 

"K  I  had  the  actual  power  I  would  not,"  said 
Peter. 

^'Why?" 

"  Because  I  would  not  dare  to  become  responsible  for 
so  much,  and  because  a  government  of  the  '  best'  men  is 
not  an  American  government." 

"Why  not?' 

"  That  is  the  aristocratic  idea.  That  the  better  ele- 
ment, so  called,  shall  compel  the  masses  to  be  good, 
whether  they  wish  it  or  no.  Just  as  one  makes  a  child 
behave  without  regard  to  its  own  desires."  —  Ford  :  The 
Honorable  Peter  Sterling. 

Exercise  45.  {Oral.}  In  the  following 
paragraph,  certain  sentences  ought  to  be  reduced 
to  the  rank  of  subordinate  clauses-— as  they 
^ere  originally  written  by  President  Hyde,  of 


//   / 


9 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  195 

Bowdoin  College. '  Using  a  participle  or  two, 
and  such  words  as  while^  when^  as^  where^  make 
such  changes  as  will  increase  the  unity  of  cer- 
tain sentences. 

Bradford  College, 

:N'ovember  30,  1894. 
My  Dear  Helen  :  — 

The  foot-ball  season  is  over,  and  I 
must  tell  you  about  it.  As  you  know,  we  won  the  cham- 
pionship, and  I  happened  to  play  quite  an  important  part 
in  it.  The  opposing  team  was  made  up  of  great  giants 
from  the  farms.  Our  team  were  mostly  light  city  boys,  --  . 
quick  as  lightning,  and  up  to  all  the  tricks  and  fine  V 
points.  Their  game  was  to  mass  themselves  on  one 
weak  point  in  the  line,  and  pound  away  at  that  time 
after  time.  In  spite  of  all  that  we  could  do  they  would 
gain  a  few  feet  each  time,  and  it  looked  as  though  they 
would  win  by  steadily  shoving  us  inch  by  inch  down  the 
field.  They  had  it  almost  over.  We  made  a  great  brace 
and  held  them,  and  got  the  ball.      \ 

Then  we  made  a  long  gain.:  '^  we  brought  the  ball 
within  forty  yards  of  their  goal.  The  time  was  nearly 
up ;  and  if  we  had  lost  it  again,  the  game  would  have 
been  either  a  tie  or  a  defeat.  As  a  last  resort  the  signal 
was  given  for  a  goal  from  the  field.  The  ball  was  passed 
to  me.  I  had  just  time  for  a  drop  kick  in  the  general  . 
direction  of  the  goal,  without  an  instant  for  taking  SLiniMhM^ 
Their  biggest  man  came  down  on  me ;  and  that  was  the 
last  I  can  remember.  All  my  force  had  gone  into  the 
kick  and  I  was  standing  still,  and  had  almost  lost  my 
balance  in  the  act  of  kicking.  He  weighed  sevejnty 
pounds  more  than  1,  and  was  coming  at  full  speed.-'V'^ou 
can  imagine  that  I  went  down  with  a  good  deal  of  force 
on  to  the  f^-ozen  ground* 


196  THE  SENTENCE 

The  next  thing  I  knew  I  was  'in  my  room,  and  the 
doctor  was  working  over  me.  To  my  first  question, 
^'Was  it  a  goal?"  the  captain  replied,  "Yes,  old  man; 
you  won  the  game  for  us."  My  injury  proved  to  be  noth- 
ing serious,  and  a  few  stitches  in  a  scalp  wound  was  all 
the  medical  treatment  necessary.  By  the  way,  don't 
mention  this  part  of  the  affair  arohnd  home.-':  '^Sfa^-e  the 
folks  will  be  likely  to  hear  of  it.^^'hey  would  worry,  and 
that  would  do  no  good.  I  was  at  some  loss  how  to 
charge  up  the  doctor's  bill  on  my  cash  account ;  but  in 
view  of  the  stitches,  I  charged  it  to  "  sewing."  I  am  just 
having  a  glorious  tin)e>pf  it  this  year.  ^-^ -There  are  lots  of 
foolish  girls  here .'^'^  /mere  are  everywhere.  And  I  don't 
see  why  a  fellow  should  not  have  some  fun  with  them. 
My  foot-ball  prowess  has  opened  the  doors  of  all  the  best 
society  to  me,  and  I  am  lionized  wherever  I  go.  I  can 
take  my  pick  of  the  girls,  and  I  get  along  with  them 
first-rate.  They  talk  foot-ball  as  soon  as  they  are  intro- 
duced, and  that  is  a  subject  on  which  I  feel  perfectly  at 
home.  —  Hyde  :   The  Evolution  of  a  College  Student. 

/^Exercise  46.  (^Written,^  In  the  following 
sentences  there  is  too  much  subordination. 
Certain  statements  are  given  less  than  their 
due  emphasis  in  the  paragraph,  and  conse- 
quently unity  and  emphasis  in  the  sentence 
both  suffer.  Rewrite,  raising  to  independent 
sentences  or  semicolon  clauses  any  statements 
that  seem  unduly  subordinated. 

1.  a.  Meanwhile  Satan  begins  his  journey,  finally 
arriving  at  the  pendent  world. 

h.  Burne-Jones  was  born  in  1833,  living  fifty-three 
years. 


UNITY  OF  THOUGHT  197 

c.  In  looking  over  some  of  the  state  papers  Mr.  Lemon 
found  the  long-lost  essay  on  Christianity  by  Milton 
which  has  been  translated  by  Mr.  Sumner  by  the  king's 
orders. 

d.  The  general  followed  us  in  his  carriage,  when  he 
turned  up  a  road  while  we  rode  on  and  turned  up 
another  road  and  came  to  a  large  house  where  we 
stopped  to  ask  the  way. 

e.  The  victim  of  the  accident  had  the  courage  to  re- 
main motionless  while  the  hot  lead  burnt  deeper  into  his 
flesh,  knowing  that  the  slightest  movement  might  suffice 
to  precipitate  his  companion  from  a  height  of  seventy 
feet  to  the  ground  below. 

/.  But  only  a  few  of  the  servants  have  lodgings  like 
this,  the  poorer  class  sleeping  in  dug-outs,  which  are 
holes  dug  in  the  ground  and  covered  with  boards. 

2.  a.  Front  de  Boeuf  was  a  knight  possessing  a  cour- 
age which  was  cold  and  brutal.^ 

h.  AVe  pretend  to  regard  the  colonies  as  entirely  sub- 
servient to  our  will,  and  yet  we  propose  to  treat  them  as 
criminals,  though  we  lack  the  power  to  enforce  laws 
against  them,  thus  recognizing  them  as  foes,  on  an 
equality  with  France  and  our  other  enemies. 

Exercise  47.  {Written,^  Take  your  five 
themes  and  revise  every  sentence  with  an  eye 
to  its  value  in  the  paragraph,  and  to  its  unity 
as  a  whole.  Reduce  unimportant  statements 
to  semicolon  clauses  or  to  dependent  clauses. 
Elevate  to  semicolon  clauses  or  to  sentences 
any  statements  unduly  subordinated.     Excise 

1  Raise  the  participial  phrase  to  a  relative  clause  only. 


198  THE  SENTENCE 

any  statements  that  belong  neither  to  the  sen- 
tence nor  to  the  paragraph.  If  the  parts  of  a 
sentence  really  belong  together,  bnt  are  so 
badly  worded  that  the  relation  is  not  clear, 
recast  the  sentence  in  exacter  or  fuller  lan- 
guage, and  so  unify  it. 

^  §  2.  Junction  of  Sentences. — If  due  atten- 
tion has  been  given  to  the  order  of  sentences 
in  the  paragraph,  there  will  be  comparatively 
little  need  of  formal  connection  between  sen- 
tences. Some  things  must  be  taken  for  granted; 
for  example,  the  relation  involved  in  the  word 
therefore^  between  the  following  assertions : 
"  You  have  no  right  to  present  that  bill.  I 
will  not  pay  it."  But  "  Connection  is  the  soul 
of  good  writing,"  said  a  great  scholar  who  was 
also  a  good  writer  ;  ^  and  whenever  a  connective 
word  will  help  to  make  the  relation  between 
sentences  clear,  it  should  be  present. 

Frequently  sentences  can  be  bound  together 
by  beginning  the  next  with  a  word  contained 
in  the  preceding.  Burke,  pleading  in  Parlia- 
ment for  America,  said:  "But  with  regard  to 
her  own  internal  establishment,  she  may,  I 
doubt  not  she  will,  contribute  in  moderation. 

1  Jowett,  tlie  famous  translator  of  Plato. 


J^UNCTION   OF  SEJSfTENCES  199 

I  say  in  moderation,  for  she  ought  not  to  be 
permitted  to  exhaust  herself.  She  ought  to  be 
reserved  to  a  war,  the  weight  of  which,  with 
the  enemies  that  we  are  most  likely  to  have, 
must  be  considerable  in  her  quarter  of  the 
globe.  There  she  may  serve  you,  and  serve 
you  essentially."  Here  the  last  words  of  each 
sentence  suggest  the  first  words  of  the  next. 
The  word  moderation  is  an  "jecho  word"  (cf. 
p.  148).  Of  course  this  method  of  getting 
coherence  is  easily  overdone;  but  it  is  very 
valuable,  nevertheless. 

Whether  echo  words  are  used  or  not,  it  is  a 
good  plan  to  begin  a  sentence  with  a  reference 
to  what  has  just  preceded.  Every  sentence 
should  be  read  over  as  soon  as  written,  and  the 
next  begun  while  the  mind  remembers  both 
what  the  last  thought  was  and  how  it  was  ex- 
pressed. One  will  soon  form  a  habit  of  arrang- 
ing words  at  the  beginning  of  a  sentence  so 
that  the  passage  from  sentence  to  sentence  shall 
be  expedited,  yet  so  that  the  structure  shall  not 
seem  unnatural. 

Exercise  48.  (Om^.)  In  the  following 
paragraphs  point  out  any  superfluous  sentence 
connectives,  and  show  how  you  would  have  the 
seateiices  read. 


200  THE  SENTENCE 

1.  Having  aroused  the  Kalmucks  against  Russia,  he 
inforuied  them  of  his  plan  to  free  themselves.  But  he 
did  not  dare  name  China  as  their  destination.  But 
he  said  they  would  bring  Russia  to  terms  by  crossing 
some  great  river. 

2.  The  beam  was  too  heavy  for  the  soldiers  to  lift. 
Nevertheless  you  could  hear  their  leader  telling  them  to 
lift  it.     Yet  he  would  not  help  them. 

3.  Howard  suspected  that  something  was  wrong,  as  the 
house-boat  did  not  return.  So  he  ran  down  to  the  cox- 
swain of  the  launch,  and  put  the  case  before  him.  And 
the  coxswain  who  was  in  charge  whistled  for  the  engi- 
neer, and  got  up  steam,  and  started  off  with  Howard  and 
a  tow-rope  aboard.  So  they  proceeded  due  west  along 
the  shore  of  Long  Island,  scanning  the  horizon  anxiously. 
And  at  last  they  vspied  the  estray,  driving  out  to  sea  be- 
fore a  heavy  wind  ;  evidently  her  engine  was  a  mere  toy 
to  this  breeze.  So  they  set  up  a  great  shout,  which  the 
wind  bore  straight  to  the  ears  of  the  people  on  the  house- 
boat. And  immediately  the  rail  of  her  was  lined  with  a 
row  of  fluttering  handkerchiefs. 

Exercise  49.  (Written,^  In  the  following 
paragraph  change  either  the  grammatical  con- 
struction or  the  order  of  words  wherever  you 
think  the  change  will  increase  the  closeness  of 
junction  between  sentences : 

We  were  coasting  down  chapel  hill.  In  western  Xew 
York,  this  is  one  of  many  similar  long  hills.  This  ^tate 
is  indeed  a  coaster's  paradise  in  many  parts.  4^  The 
particular  paradise  I  speak  of  saw  a  disastrous  fall, 
however.  Williams,  I  mean  by  this,  who  was  coming 
like  a  meteor  down  the  hill,   with  Miss  in  front 


ORDER   OF   WORDS  IN   THE  SENTENCE     201 

of  him  on  the  "  bob-sled,"  as  he  reached  the  bridge,  was 
thrown  out  of  the  track.  Luckless  bridge!  it  ought  to 
have  been  guarded  by  stout  rails.  There  were  no  rails, 
however,  and  across  the  narrow  canyon,  Williams,  with 
his  pi-ecious  charge,  took  a  flying  leap.  On  the  other 
side  of  it,  five  feet  below,  was  a  wooden  abutment.  The 
lives  of  the  young  people  were  saved  by  this ;  for  the  sled 
shot  across  the  gulf  and  landed  on  the  projection.  We 
picked  the  adventurers  up  from  this  perilous  perch. 
They  were  surprised  rather  than  hurt.  But  after  he 
had  time  to  think,  Williams  confessed  that  he  was  never 
more  frightened  in  his  life. 

Exercise  50.  (Written.}  Take  your  themes 
and  try  to  improve  the  connection  between  sen- 
tences. Change  the  order  of  words,  use  echo 
words,  and  employ  connectives,  according  to 
your  best  judgment.  When  really  needed,  the 
following  connectives  will  be  useful :  accord- 
ingly^ and  indeed^  as  a  matter  of  fact  ^  as  a  result^ 
consequently^  in  consequence^  indeed,  in  brief  in 
effect,  in  short,  in  spite  of  this,  however  (placed 
near  the  beginning  but  not  usually  at  the 
beginning),  07i  the  contrary,  on  the  other  hand, 
moreover,  nevertheless,  therefore,  to  be  sure. 

§  3.    Order   of  Words  in  the   Sentence. 

A.  The  Coherent  $rder.  -We  have  already 
seen  the  part  played  by  word  order  in 
joining    thoughts    smoothly    within    the    par- 


202  THE  SENTENCE 

agraph.  The  reader's  mind  must  follow 
through  the  sentence  as  readily  as  it  crosses 
to  the  sentence.  Thoughts  which  belong  to- 
gether in  the  mind  should  appear  together  on 
the  paper.  Modifiers  should  stand  near  their 
principals.  Verbs  should  not  be  too  far  re- 
moved from  their  subjects,  nor  objects  too  far 
from  their  verbs.  Unless  this  collocation  of 
related  things  is  brought  about,  there  will  be 
misunderstanding,  or  ludicrous  suggestion,  or 
violation  of  idiom,  or,  at  best,  awkwardness. 
Supposedly  we  have  long  since  had  drill 
enough  in  this  matter  to  prevent  our  making 
gross  blunders  like  this  :  "  Erected  to  the  mem- 
ory of  John  Phillips,  accidentally  shot  by  his 
brother,  as  a  mark  of  affection ;  "  and  we  need 
not  dwell  upon  this  kind  of  error.  But  the 
uninflected  nature  of  English  makes  it  neces- 
sary for  the  w^riter  to  keep  up  a  constant  study 
of  the  possibilities  of  collocation.  In  Latin,  an 
accusative  may  stand  half  a  page  removed  from 
its  verb,  without  violation  of  meaning  or  idiom ; 
not  so  in  English. 

Exercise  51.  (Oral.}  The  following  sen- 
tences illustrate  forms  of  wrong  collocation. 
In  some  cases  the  meaning  is  ambiguous  —  cap- 


ORDER    OF   WORDS  IN   THE  SENTENCE     203 

able  of  two  interpretations  ;  in  others  it  is 
merely  vague,  hard  to  grasp.  Change  the  order 
of  words  so  as  to  improve  the  coherence. 

1.  Even  if  he  slept  during  the  service,  Sir  Koger 
thought  that  he  must  be  present  to  keep  order. 

2.  The  efficacy  of  his  plan,  when  carried  out,  by  the 
successful  accomplishment  of  its  object  proved  beyond  a 
doubt  "its  practicability. 

3.  We  had  a  horse  hitched  on  the  wagon  that  had 
not  been  v\^orked  for  several  days. 

4.  The  Sabines  wore  bracelets  on  their  left  wrists, 
which  sometimes  had  a  stone  set  in. 

5.  The  setting  sun  makes  the  sky  here  look  like  par- 
adise, together  with  the  tranquillity  of  the  harbor. 

6.  There  is  an  old  woman  who  has  done  some  work 
at  our  house  of  very  peculiar  appearance. 

7.  In  a  tragedy,  society  suffers  for  the  sins  of  the 
individual,  as  well  as  the  individual. 

8.  Milton  overcame  great  odds  when  he  became  a 
poet,  because  of  his  great  learning,  in  that  respect  sur- 
passing the  efforts  of  earlier  poets. 

9.  The  servitude  of  England  to  France  followed 
Cromwell's  death  and  the  most  shameful  time  in  the 
annals  of  English  history. 

10.  When  he  passes  any  lady  on  the  street  that  he 
knows  he  never  thinks  of  tipping  his  hat,  but  looks  at 
her  as  if  he  would  like  to  bite  her  head  off. 


Exercise  52.  (Oral.^  In  the  following  sen- 
tences the  bad  collocation  does  not  result  in 
misunderstanding,  or  vagueness,  or  ambiguity; 


204  THE  SENTENCE 

the  meaning  is  clear  enough.  But  it  does  re- 
sult in  awkwardness :  the  order  of  the  English 
idiom  is  violated,  or  the  natural  rhythm  of  the 
sentence  is  rudely  broken.  Change  the  order 
of  words  according  to  your  best  judgment. 
There  will  be  no  need  of  adding  or  subtracting 
any  word. 

1.  The  ideal  boy  should  be  first  of  all  honest. 

2.  The  return  of  this  bill  from  the  other  house  forces 
us  to  again  consider  the  question.  [Note  particularly 
the  awkwardness  of  the  "  cleft  infinitive."] 

3.  Lincoln's  face  is  that  of  a  man  who  is  in  the  habit 
of  thinking  first,  of  doing  second. 

4.  "Let"  as  used  in  Shakspere  has  sometimes  a 
similar  meaning  to  that  of  "prevent"  as  used  to-day. 

5.  The  word  has  since  become  used  with  the  almost 
opposite  meaning. 

6.  We  must  have  peace,  peace  not  gained  by  war  but 
by  gentler  methods. 

7.  The  American  commerce,  which  was  in  1772 
twelvefold  as  great  as  in  1704,  is  a  strong  argument 
for  conciliating  the  colonies. 

8.  Goneril  and  Regan  are  each  determined  to  win 
Edmund,  and  because  of  their  jealousy,  in  the  end,  both 
lose  their  lives. 

9.  They,  at  first,  simply  fell  in  love. 

10.  He,  as  a  rule,  uses  the  closed  couplet. 

11.  He,  in  his  political  life,  united  the  virtues  of  the 
Puritan  with  those  of  the  Cavalier. 

12.  The  bitterest  thing  Shylock  says  is  "  She,"  refer- 
ring to  his  daughter,  "  is  damned  for  it." 


ORDER   OF  WORDS  IN   THE  SENTENCE     205 

13.  My  brother  was  lying  flat  on  his  back,  when  he  all 
of  a  sudden  told  me  to  look  up  at  the  sky. 

14.  Satan's  character  is  much  more  imaginatively 
drawn  than  that  of  Lucifer. 

15.  I  can  remember,  as  I  was  passing  through  the 
Sierra  ^Nevada  Mountains,  seeing  a  most  beautiful  lake. 

16.  There  are  in  this  place  no  fewer  than  seven  mon- 
uments. 

17.  Meanwhile  Portia  enters  and  the  trial  has  just 
really  commenced. 

18.  I  soon  was  imagining  that  I  was  at  home  picking 
peaches. 

19.  De  Bracy  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it 
whatever. 

20.  Wamba  often  was  the  only  one  who  could  please 
Cedric  when  Cedric  was  in  a  bad  mood. 

21.  The  Duke  of  Wellington  was  sitting  at  breakfast 
with  Picton  and  other  officers,  during  the  Peninsular 
campaign,  just  before  an  engagement. 

22.  I  had  a  predilection  for  the  subject  of  mathe- 
matics, which  led  me  to  a  greater  enjoyment  of  that 
subject,  when  I  came  to  study  it,  than  of  all  other  studies. 

23.  The  bear  was  in  the  cave,  and  being  not  suspi- 
cious of  any  danger,  I  walked  in. 

24.  He  removed  his  hat  in  a  rather  leisurely  way. 
[This  position  of  "  rather  "  is  correct  enough,  but  most 
writers  prefer,  for  rhythm's  sake,  to  place  "  rather "  be- 
fore the  indefinite  article,  thus :  "  He  removed  his  hat  in 
rather  a  leisurely  way."] 

When  two  orders  of  words  in  a  sentence  are 
recognized  by  good  usage,  but  one  is  more 
coherent  than  the  other,  the  more  coherent 
should  be  chosen.     Change  the  order  of  words 


^; 


206  THE  SENTENCE 

in  the  following  (correct)  sentences,  so  as  to 
allow  the  reader's  mind  to  go  more  directly  to 
its  goal.  Omit  any  word,  like  than^  which  then 
becomes  unnecessary,  and  add  any  word,  like  it^ 
which  becomes  necessary. 

1.  The  Cavaliers  were  not  defending  or  fighting  for 
despotism. 

2.  This  coffee  is  as  good  as,  if  not  better  than,  that 
we  used  to  get  at  home. 

8.  This  apple  is  different  from,  and  sweeter  than,  the 
others. 

4.  The  American  trade,  from  being  one-twelfth  in 
1704,  was  in  1772  one-third  of  the  whole  amount  of  our 
foreio'ii  business. 


Exercise  53.  (Written.^  Take  your  five 
themes  and  examine  each  sentence  to  see  if 
the  words  in  each  can  be  more  coherently 
arranged.  Make  any  changes  that  will  im- 
prove either  the  meaning  or  the  rhythm. 

B.  The  Emphatic  Order.  —  Every  sen- 
tence should  be  coherent ;  some  should  be 
emphatic.  A  statement  is  made  emphatic  by 
its  subject-matter,  its  punctuation  in  the  para- 
graph, or  by  its  order  of  words.  The  emphatic 
orders  within  the  sentence  are  the  inverted 
order  —  object,  verb,  subject;  and  the  partly 
inverted  order  —  object,  subject,  verb  ;  because 
these    orders    are    unusual    enough   to   attract 


ORDER   OF   WORDS  IN   THE  SENTENCE     207 

attention.  Unmistakable  is  the  emphasis  of 
Matthew  Arnold's  statement  about  German 
style.  "  Style,  then,  the  Germans  are  singu- 
larly without."  The  inverted  order  forces 
"style"  and  "without"  into  great  prominence. 
A  like  prominence  is  given  to  one  word  twice 
in  a  sentence  of  Cardinal  Newman.  "Flagrant 
ills,"  he  says,  "cure  themselves  by  being 
flagrant."  1 

Exercise  54.  (Oral')  Which  of  the  follow- 
ing sentences  from  Ruskin  begin  and  end  with 
words  that  deserve  distinction  ? 

"  For  all  books  are  divisible  into  two  classes,  —  the 
books  of  the  hour  and  the  books  of  all  time.  Mark 
this  distinction ;  it  is  not  one  of  quality  only.  It  is  not 
merely  the  bad  book  that  does  not  last,  and  the  good  one 
that  does  ;  it  is  a  distinction  of  species.  There  are  good 
books  for  the  hour,  and  good  ones  for  all  time;  bad 
books  for  the  hour,  and  bad  ones  for  all  time.  I  must 
define  the  two  kinds  before  I  go  farther." 

Exercise  55.  (Oral)  Change  the  order  of 
words  in  the  following  sentences  so  as  to  throw 
more  emphasis  on  the  italicized  words.  Avoid 
infringement  of  English  idiom  in  making  the 
changes. 

1  Compare  a  maxim  which  is  daily  growing  in  favor: 
*'The  best  way  to  get  rid  of  a  bad  law  is  to  enforce  it." 


208  THE  SENTENCE 

1.  It  is  courage  that  wins. 

2.  Never  say  die,  under  any  circumstances. 

3.  Yet  he  stood  beautiful  and  bright,  as  born  to  rule 
the  storm. 

4.  A  rascal,  nothing  more  or  less,  he  was. 

5.  Gilpin  went  away,  and  the  post  boy  went  away. 

6.  The  English  child  is  white  as  an  angel. 

7.  When  wild  northwesters  rave  on  stormy  nights 
With  wind  and  wave,  how  proud  a  thing  to  fight. 

8.  What  a  piece  of  work  man  is  ! 

9.  Trafalgar  lay,  full  in  face,  bluish  mid  the  burning 
water. 

10.  He  repeatedly  pronounced  these  ivords,  and  they 
were  the  last  which  he  uttered. 

11.  The  king  said,  ^^Alas,  help  me  from  hence." 

12.  Man  is  the  paragon  of  animals,  the  beauty  of  the 
world. 

13.  What  a  place  an  old  library  is  to  be  in.  It  seems 
as  though  all  the  souls  of  all  the  writers  that  have  be- 
queathed their  labors  to  these  Bodleians,  as  in  some 
middle  state  or  dormitory,  were  reposing  here.  I  do  not 
want  to  handle,  to  profane  their  winding  sheet,  the  leaves. 
I  could  a  shade  as  soon  dislodge. 

Exercise  56.  {Written.^  Revise  each  sen- 
tence of  your  themes  with  reference  to  the 
principle  of  emphasis.  Do  not  violate  the 
English  idiom,  but,  whenever  it  is  possible, 
begin  and  end  with  words  that  deserve  dis- 
tinction. 

(7.  The  Natural  Order  and  the  Sus- 
pended    Order.  —  When    a    sentence    can     be 


ORDER   OF   WORDS  IN  THE  SENTENCE     209 

closed  at  some  distance  before  the  end  without 
hurting  the  grammatical  construction,  we  call 
it  a  loose  or  unsuspended  sentence.  Loose  here 
is  not  a  term  of  reproach.  Every  compound 
sentence  is  loose.  A  simple  sentence,  showing 
after  its  verb  several  verb  modifiers,  or  objects, 
or  participial  phrases,  would  be  a  loose  sen- 
tence ;  for  example  :  ''  He  raised  the  line, 
slowly,  carefully,  lifting  it  hand  over  hand, 
with  great  pains  not  to  break  the  hook  on  the 
sunken  log  which  gradually  appeared,  hanging 
at  the  end  of  it,  in  the  cold,  clear  water."  The 
loose  or  unsuspended  order  is  common  in  con- 
versation. Children  almost  always  use  it,  giving 
their  main  thought  first  and  qualifying  it  after- 
ward —  as  the  qualifications  suggest  themselves. 
The  early  prose  of  every  race  is  mostly  loose  in 
structure,  like  these  sentences  of  Sir  John 
Mandevilles  Voyage  and  Travel^  written  in 
the  fourteenth  century  : 

And  some  men  say  that  in  the  Isle  of  Lango  is  yet  the 
daughter  of  Hippocrates,  in  form  and  likeness  of  a  great 
dragon,  that  is  a  hundred  fathom  of  length,  as  men  say: 
for  I  have  not  seen  her.  And  they  of  the  Isles  call  her 
Lady  of  the  Land.  And  she  lieth  in  an  old  castle,  in  a 
cave,  and  sheweth  twice  or  thrice  in  the  year.  And  she 
doth  no  harm  to  no  man,  but  if  men  do  her  harm.  And 
she  was  thus  changed  and  transformed,  from  a  fair  dam- 


210  THE  SENTENCE 

sel,  into  likeness  of  a  dragon  by  a  goddess  that  was  cleped 
Diana.  And  men  say,  that  she  shall  so  endure  in  that 
form  of  a  dragon,  unto  the  time  that  a  knight  come,  that 
is  so  hardy,  that  dare  come  to  her  and  kiss  her  on  the 
mouth  :  and  then  shall  she  turn  again  to  her  own  kind, 
and  be  a  woman  again.  But  after  that  she  shall  not  live 
long. 

The  advantage  of  the  loose  sentence  is  its 
simplicity  of  tone.  Its  chief  disadvantage  is 
the  danger  of  a  misunderstanding  when  state- 
ments are  qualified  by  this  postscript  method. 
The  sentence,  "  You  are  a  liar  —  if  you  said 
that"  is  loose.  It  is  not  a  good  sentence  to 
copy,  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  the 
qualification  might  come  too  late  to  prevent 
trouble.  If  such  a  sentiment  had  to  be  ex- 
pressed, as  it  might  once  in  a  long  life,  a  wise 
man  would  put  the  modifier  first  and  pronounce 
it  with  great  coolness,  and  with  even  further 
qualification:  "If  you  said  that  —  though  I 
can  hardly  bring  myself  to  believe  that  you 
did  —  why,  then,  you  said  what  was  false." 
This  placing  the  modifier  before  the  verb  gives 
us  the  periodic  or  suspended  structure.  .  A 
periodic  sentence  is  a  sentence,  usually  com- 
plex, in  which  the  modifiers  of  the  verb  pre- 
cede the  verb.  The  effect  of  this  structure  is 
to  delay  the  main  idea  of  the  sentence  until 


OBDER   OF  WORDS  IN   THE  SENTENCE     211 

the  last.  Obviously,  if  too  many  subordinate 
thoughts  occur  before  the  main  one,  the  mind 
of  the  reader  will  weary  with  the  tension  of 
expectation.  Short  periodic  sentences  how- 
ever are  extremely  effective  in  arousing  the 
reader's  attention  and  holding  it  till  the  im- 
portant idea  is  stated.  It  is  plain  that  good 
suspended  structure  is  highly  conducive  to 
unity  in  the  sentence  :  each  subordinate  idea 
is  held  in  its  proper  place  of  subordination 
till  the  main  idea  is  stated,  and  on  the  reader 
is  flashed  a  pleasant  sense  that  the  structure 
has  grown  naturally  into  one  complete  whole. 

The  periodic  sentence,  then,  is  to  be  used 
Avhen  either  of  two  effects  is  desired  :  either 
when  some  surprise  contained  in  the  main  verb 
at  the  end  is  to  be  led  up  to,  or  when,  for  what- 
ever reason,  it  is  important  that  qualifying 
statements  should  come  before  the  main  state- 
ment in  order  to  prevent  misconception. 

There  is  often  need  of  combining  both  kinds 
of  structure,  suspended  and  un suspended,  in 
the  same  paragraph  and  even  in  the  same 
sentence.  For  ordinary  purposes  we  may  clas- 
sify such  a  sentence  as  chiefly  loose  or  chiefly 
periodic,  according  to  the  preponderance  of 
type. 


212  THE  SENTENCE 

Each  of  the  passages  below  should  be  read 
aloud  as  a  whole,  to  get  the  effects  produced  by 
the  different  types  of  sentence.  In  the  first 
passage  we  have  a  loose  structure,  but  increas- 
ing emphasis  in  each  phrase.  The  first  and 
third  sentences  in  the  second  passage  arouse 
interest  by  the  periodic  structure ;  but  the 
third  and  fourth,  unsuspended,  have  a  fine  sim- 
plicity that  befits  their  subject-matter.  The 
third  passage,  periodic,  moves  up  steadily  to  an 
impressive  point,  —  the  word  thinh.  The  fourth 
passage  is  extremely  direct  and  earnest.  Web- 
ster is  pleading  for  his  Alma  Mater ^  Dartmouth; 
is  making  an  appeal,  straight  from  his  heart. 
Almost  choked  with  emotion,  he  has  no  desire 
to  frame  suspended,  nicely  subordinated  clauses. 
In  the  fifth  passage,  Huxley,  like  Lanier,  gets  a 
steadily  increasing  strength  of  thought,  but  not 
of  structure.  His  sentence  has  climax  but  not 
periodicity.  Cardinal  Newman,  on  the  other 
hand,  builds  up  his  period  with  superb  suspense 
both  of  form  and  thought. 

1.  He  who  walks  in  the  way  these  following  ballads 
point  will  be  manful  in  necessary  fight,  fair  in  trade, 
loyal  in  love,  generous  to  the  poor,  tender  in  the  house- 
hold, prudent  in  living,  plain  in  speech,  merry  upon 
occasion,  simple  in  behavior,  and  honest  in  all  things.  — 
Lanier  :   The  Boy's  Percy. 


OBDER   OF   WORDS  IN    THE  SENTENCE     213 

2.  While  Johnson  was  busied  with  his  Idlers,  his 
mother,  who  had  accomplished  her  ninetieth  year,  died 
at  Lichfield.  It  was  long  since  he  had  seen  her;  but  he 
had  not  failed  to  contribute  largely,  out  of  his  small 
means,  to  her  comfort.  In  order  to  defray  the-  charges 
of  her  funeral,  and  to  pay  some  debts  which  she  had  left, 
he  wrote  a  little  book  in  a  single  week,  and  sent  off  the 
sheets  to  the  press  without  reading  them  over.  A  hun- 
dred pounds  were  paid  him  for  the  copyright ;  and  the 
purchasers  had  great  cause  to  be  pleased  with  their  bar- 
gain, for  the  book  was  Rasselas.  —  Macaulay  :  Life  of 
Johnson. 

3.  Finally,  brethren,  whatsoever  things  are  true,  what- 
soever things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just, 
whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely, 
whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report;  if  there  be  any 
virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these  things. 
—  Philippians. 

4.  ^'  Sir,  you  may  destroy  this  little  institution  ;  it  is 
weak ;  it  is  in  your  hands  !  I  know  it  is  one  of  the  lesser 
lights  in  the  literary  horizon  of  our  country.  You  may 
put  it  out.  But  if  you  do  so,  you  must  carry  through 
your  work  \  You  must  extinguish,  one  after  another,  all 
those  greater  lights  of  science  ^^hich,  for  more  than  a 
century,  have  thrown  their  radiance  over  our  land!  It 
is,  Sir,  as  I  have  said,  a  small  college.  And  yet  there 
are  those  who  love  it."  —  Webster. 

5.  That  man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  education, 
who  has  been  so  trained  in  youth  that  his  body  is  the 
ready  servant  of  his  will,  and  does  with  ease  and  pleas- 
ure all  the  work  that,  as  a  mechanism,  it  is  capable  of; 
whose  intellect  is  a  clear,  cold,  logic  engine,  with  all  its 
parts  of  equal  strength,  and  in  smooth  working  order; 
ready,  like  a  steam  engine,  to  be  turned  to  any  kind  of 
work,  and  spin  the  gossamers  as  well  as  forge  the  anchors 


214  THE  SENTENCE 

of  the  mind ;  whose  mind  is  stored  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  great  and  fundamental  truths  of  I^ature  and  of  the 
laws  of  her  operations ;  one  who,  no  stunted  ascetic,  is 
full  of  life  and  fire,  but  whose  passions  are  trained  to 
come  to  heel  by  a  vigorous  will,  the  servant  of  a  tender 
conscience ;  who  has  learned  to  love  all  beauty,  whether 
of  Nature  or  of  art,  to  hate  all  vileness,  and  to  respect 
others  as  himself. — Huxley:  Lmj  Sermons. 

6.  If  then  the  power  of  speech  is  a  gift  as  great  as 
any  that  can  be  named,  —  if  the  origin  of  language  is  by 
many  philosophers  even  considered  to  be  nothing  short 
of  divine,  —  if  by  means  of  words  the  secrets  of  the  heart 
are  brought  to  light,  pain  of  soul  is  relieved,  hidden  grief 
is  carried  oif,  sympathy  conveyed,  counsel  imparted,  ex- 
perience recorded,  and  wisdom  perpetuated,  —  if  by  great 
authors  the  many  are  drawn  up  into  unity,  national  char- 
acter is  fixed,  a  people  speaks,  the  past  and  the  future, 
the  East  and  the  West  are  brought  into  communication 
with  each  other,  —  if  such  men  are,  in  a  word,  the  spokes- 
men and  prophets  of  the  human  family,  —  it  will  not 
answer  to  make  light  of  Literature  or  to  neglect  its 
study ;  rather  we  may  be  sure  that,  in  proportion  as  we 
master  it  in  whatever  language,  and  imbibe  its  spirit,  we 
shall  ourselves  become^^in  our  own  measure  the  ministers 
of  like  benefits  to  others,  be  they  many  or  few,  be  they 
in  the  obscurer  or  the  more  distinguished  walks  of  life, — 
who  are  united  to  us  by  social  ties,  and  are  within  the 
sphere  of  our  personal  influence.  —  Cardinal  Newman. ^ 

Exercise  57.  (Ora^.)  In  tlie  following 
passages,  point  out  those  sentences  which  are 

1  The  longer  passages  to  which  the  last  two  selections  be- 
long may  be  found  in  Genung^s  Bhetorical  A)ialy sis  (Ginn). 


ORDER   OF    WORDS  IN   THE  SENTENCE     215 

chiefly  loose,  and  those  which  are  chiefly  peri- 
odic. Discuss  the  question  whether  the  better 
form  of  structure  has  been  chosen  for  each 
particular  purpose.  ^ 

1.  a.  "  Yes,  I  know.  But  money  is  money,  my  friend," 
exclaimed  the  prince,  laying  his  right  hand  on  the  old 
green  tablecover  and  slowly  drawing  his  crooked  nails 
over  the  cloth,  as  though  he  would  like  to  squeeze  gold 
out  of  the  dusty  wool.  —  Crawford  :  Sanf  Ilario. 

b.  By  the  place  where  Rachael  lived,  though  it  was  ^|^»«**» 
not  in  his  way ;  by  the  red-brick  streets ;  by  the   great 

silent  factories,  not  trembling  yet ;  by  the  railway,  where 
the  danger-lights  were  waning  in  the  strengthening  day; 
by  the  railway's  crazy  neighborhood,  half  pulled  down 
and  half  built  up;  by  scattered  red-brick  villas,  where 
the  besmoked  evergreens  were  sprinkled  with  a  dirty 
powder,  like  untidy  snuff-takers  ;  by  coal-dust  paths  and 
many  varieties  of  ugliness ;  Stephen  got  to  the  top  of  the 
hill,  and  looked  back.  —  Dickens  :  Hard  Times. 

c.  Inside,  the  engineer  sat  at  his  window  with  his 
earnest  eyes  looking  up  the  track,  his  strong  hand  upon 
crank  or  lever,  and  his  face  grave  and  quiet.  The  fire- 
man poured  oil  into  the  sucking  cups  above  the  boiler ; 
then  he  clanked  the  chain  of  the  furnace  door,  peeped 
into  the  raging  fire  within,  hurled  into  it  a  shovelful  of 
coal  dust,  rammed  it  home  with  the  poker,  worked  the 
movable  lever  which  dumped  ashes,  and  again  poured  oil 
into  the  sucking,  choking  cups.  —  Bolles  :  At  the  North 
of  Bearcamp  Water. 

2.  a.  The  chief  marvel  of  the  mosque  is  the  great 
dome.  Looked  at  from  the  nave  below,  it  seems,  indeed, 
as  Madame  de  Stael  said  of  the  dome  of  Saint  Peter's, 


216  THE  SENTENCE 

like   an    abyss   suspended  over  one's  head.  —  D'Amicis, 
trans.  Singleton  :  Turrets,  Towers,  and  Temples. 

b.  We  habitually  think  of  the  rain-cloud  only  as  dark 
and  grey ;  not  knowing  that  we  owe  to  it  perhaps  the 
fairest,  though  not  the  most  dazzling,  of  the  hues  of 
heaven.  Often  in  our  English  mornings,  the  rain-clouds 
in  the  dawn  form  soft,  level  fields,  which  melt  impercep- 
tibly into  the  blue ;  or,  when  of  less  extent,  gather  into 
apparent  bars,  crossing  the  sheets  of  broader  clouds 
above;  and  all  these  bathed  throughout  in  an  unspeak- 
able light  of  pure  rose-colour,  and  purple,  and  amber, 
and  blue;  not  shining,  but  misty-soft;  the  barred  masses, 
when  seen  nearer,  composed  of  clusters  or  tresses  of  cloud, 
like  floss  silk  ;  looking  as  if  each  knot  were  a  little  swathe 
or  sheaf  of  lighted  rain.  —  Ruskin. 

c.  Yellow  japanned  buttercups  and  star-disked  dande- 
lions, —  just  as  we  see  them  lying  in  the  grass,  like  sparks 
that  have  leaped  from  the  kindling  sun  of  summer;  the 
profuse  daisy-like  flower  which  whitens  the  fields,  to  the 
great  disgust  of  liberal  shepherds,  yet  seems  fair  to  lov- 
ing eyes,  with  its  button-like  mound  of  gold  set  round 
with  milk-white  rays  ;  the  tall-stemmed  succory,  setting 
its  pale  blue  flowers  aflame,  one  after  another,  sparingly, 
as  the  lights  are  kindled  in  the  candelabra  of  decaying 
palaces  when  the  heirs  of  dethroned  monarchs  are  dying 
out ;  the  red  and  white  clovers ;  the  broad,  flat  leaves  of 
the  plantain,  —  "  the  white  man's  foot,"  as  the  Indians 
called  it,  —  the  wiry,  jointed  stems  of  that  iron  creeping 
plant  which  we  call  *'  hnot-grass,'^  and  which  loves  its 
life  so  dearly  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  murder  it 
wdth  a  hoe,  as  it  clings  to  the  cracks  of  the  pavement ;  — 
all  these  plants,  and  many  more,  she  wove  into  her  fan- 
ciful garlands  and  borders.  —  Holmes:  The  Professor  at 
the  Breakfast  Table. 

3.    a.    Patience ;     kindness ;     generosity ;      humility ; 


ORDER   OF  WORDS  IN'  THE  SENTENCE     217 

courtesy ;  unselfishness  ;  good  temper ;  guilelessness ; 
sincerity  —  these  make  up  the  supreme  gift,  the  stature 
of  the  perfect  man.  —  Henry  Drummoxd. 

h.  No  form  of  vice,  not  worldliness,  not  greed  of  gold, 
not  drunkenness  itself,  does  more  to  un-Christianize 
society  than  evil  temper.  For  embittering  life,  for  break- 
ing up  communities,  for  destroying  the  most  sacred 
relationships,  for  devastating  homes,  for  withering  up 
men  and  women,  for  taking  the  bloom  of  childhood,  in 
short,  for  sheer  gratuitous  misery-producing  power,  this 
influence  stands  alone.  —  Henry  Drummond. 

c.  Good  dressing,  quiet  ways,  low  tones  of  voice,  lips 
that  can  wait,  and  eyes  that  do  not  wander,  —  shyness  of 
personalities,  except  in  certain  intimate  communions, — 
to  be  light  in  liand  in  conversation,  to  have  ideas,  but  to 
be  able  to  make  talk,  if  necessary,  without  them,  —  to 
belong  to  the  company  you  are  in,  and  not  to  yourself,  — 
to  have  nothing  in  your  dress  or  furniture  so  fine  that 
you  cannot  afford  to  spoil  it  and  get  another  like  it,  yet 
to  preserve  the  harmonies  throughout  your  person  and 
dwelling :  I  should  say  that  this  w^as  a  fair  capital  of 
manners  to  begin  with.  —  Holmes  :  The  Professor  at  the 
Breakfast  Table. 

d.  Place  an  astronomer  on  board  a  ship;  blindfold 
him ;  carry  him  by  any  route  to  any  ocean  on  the  globe, 
whether  under  the  tropics  or  in  one  of  the  frigid  zones, 
land  him  on  the  wildest  rock  that  can  be  found;  remove 
his  bandage,  and  give  him  a  chronometer  regulated  to 
Greenwich  or  Washington  time,  a  transit  instrument  with 
the  proper  appliances,  and  the  necessary  books  and  tables, 
and  in  a  single  clear  night  he  can  tell  his  position  within 
a  hundred  yards  by  observations  of  the  stars. — Simon 
Newcomb. 

e.  To  live  content  w^ith  small  means;  to  seek  elegance 
rather  than  luxury,  and  refinement  rather  than  fashion ; 


218  THE  SENTENCE 

to  be  worthy,  not  respectable;  and  wealthy,  not  rich;  to 
study  hard,  think  quietly,  talk  gently,  act  frankly ;  to 
listen  to  stars  and  birds,  babes  and  sages,  with  open 
heart ;  await  occasions,  hurry  never ;  in  a  word,  to  let 
the  spiritual,  unbidden  and  unconscious,  grow  up  through 
the  common,  —  this  is  to  be  my  symphony.  —  William 
Henry  Ciianning. 

/.  To  parents,  in  guiding  the  growth  and  development 
of  their  children ;  to  teachers,  in  watching  the  effects  of 
study  and  local  conditions  upon  the  health  of  their  pupils ; 
to  superintendents  of  shops,  mills,  and  factories ;  and  to 
those  who  have  charge  of  prisons,  asylums,  and  peniten- 
tiaries, a  knowledge  of  the  typical  proportions  of  the 
body  are  indispensable  to  the  proper  performance  of  their 
duties.  To  the  sociologist  and  statesman,  in  tracing  the 
influence  of  occupation  and  of  town  and  city  life  upon  the 
health  and  strength  of  a  people ;  to  the  civil-service 
examiner,  in  selecting  those  best  qualified  to  serve  in 
certain  capacities ;  to  the  life-insurance  examiner,  in 
deciding  what  risks  to  accept,  etc.,  a  thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  the  physical  signs  of  health  and  approaching 
disease  is  of  the  greatest  importance.  —  Sargent:  The 
Physical  Proportions  of  the  Typical  Man. 

g.  Never,  since  man  came  into  this  atmosphere  of 
oxygen  and  azote,  was  there  anything  like  the  condition 
of  the  young  American  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Hav- 
ing in  possession  or  in  prospect  the  best  part  of  half  a 
world,  with  all  its  climate  and  soils  to  choose  from; 
equipped  with  wings  of  fire  and  smoke  that  fly  with  him 
day  and  night,  so  that  he  counts  his  journey  not  in  miles, 
but  in  degrees,  and  sees  the  seasons  change  as  the  wild 
fowl  sees  them  in  his  annual  flight ;  with  huge  leviathans 
always  ready  to  take  him  on  their  broad  backs  and  push 
behind  them  with  their  pectoral  or  caudal  fins  the  waters 
that  seam  the  continent  or  separate  the   hemispheres; 


OBDER    OF   WORDS  IN   THE  SENTENCE     219 

heir  of  all  old  civilizations,  founder  of  that  new  one 
which,  if  all  the  prophecies  of  the  human  heart  are  not 
lies,  is  to  be  the  noblest,  as  it  is  the  last ;  isolated  in  space 
from  the  races  that  are  governed  by  dynasties  whose 
divine  right  grows  out  of  human  wrong,  yet  knit  into  the 
most  absolute  solidarity  with  mankind  of  all  times  and 
places  by  the  one  great  thought  he  inherits  as  his  national 
birthright;  free  to  form  and  express  his  opinions  on 
almost  every  subject,  and  assured  that  he  will  soon 
acquire  the  last  franchise  which  men  withhold  from 
man,  —  that  of  stating  the  laws  of  his  spiritual  being  and 
the  beliefs  he  accepts  without  hindrance  except  from 
clearer  views  of  truth,  —  he  seems  to  want  nothing  for 
a  large,  wholesome,  noble,  beneficent  life.  In  fact,  the 
chief  danger  is  that  he  will  think  the  whole  planet  is 
made  for  him,  and  forget  that  there  are  some  possibilities 
left  in  the  debris  of  the  old-world  civilization  which  de- 
serve a  certain  respectful  consideration  at  his  hands. — 
Holmes  :  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

4.  a.  One  of  the  wisest  of  modern  readers  has  said 
that  the  most  important  characteristic  of  the  real  critic  — 
the  man  who  penetrates  the  secret  of  a  work  of  art  —  is 
the  ability  to  admire  greatly ;  and  there  is  but  a  short 
step  between  admiration  and  love.  —  H.  W.  Mabie. 

b.  But  all  experience  contradicts  these  notions.  To 
attain  success  and  length  of  service  in  any  of  the  learned 
professions,  including  that  of  teaching,  a  vigorous  body 
is  wellnigh  essential.  A  busy  lawyer,  editor,  minister, 
physician,  or  teacher,  has  need  of  greater  physical  endur- 
ance than  a  farmer,  trader,  manufacturer,  or  mechanic. 
All  professional  biography  teaches  that  to  win  lasting 
distinction  in  sedentary,  in-door  occupations,  which  task 
the  brain  and  the  nervous  system,  extraordinary  tough- 
ness of  body  must  accompany  extraordinary  mental 
powers.  —  President  C.  W.  Eliot. 


220  THE  SENTENCE 

c.  The  fashion  of  the  day  prescribes  for  sons  of  the 
merely  well-to-do  as  much  spending-nioney  as  in  the  days 
of  their  fathers'  boyhood  would  have  sufficed  for  a 
creditable  professional  income,  and  for  sons  of  the  rich 
allowances  which,  fifty  years  ago,  would  have  enabled  a 
prudent  man  to  start  in  the  banking  business.  This 
fashion  is  based  on  the  theory  that  boys,  on  being  sent 
away  to  school,  should  carry  with  them  the  means  of  re- 
flecting the  comfort,  and  even  luxury,  of  the  homes  from 
which  they  have  come.  Thus  they  are  launched  early  on 
waters  abounding  in  insidious  currents  and  hidden  reefs, 
and  allowed  to  steer  their  own  course  with  the  compass 
of  conscience,  the  needle  being  subject  to  the  disturbance 
of  a  large  amount  of  current  metal. —  The  Century 
Magazine. 

d.  The  day  w^hen  an  engineer  could  succeed  by  the 
force  of  simple  judgment  or  "horse  sense,"  and  a  method 
of  "  cutting  and  trying,"  is  quite  past,  because  competi- 
tion in  these  lines  has  reached  a  point  at  w^hich  no  one 
can  afford  to  make  mistakes.  A  machine  must  be  cor- 
rectly designed  on  paper  before  any  attempt  is  made  to 
build  it,  as  otherwise  the  cost  involved  in  reconstruction 
would  be  fatal  to  commercial  success.  That  is  the  reason 
that,  to-day,  in  our  largest  and  best  managed  establish- 
ments, a  preference  is  given  to  the  graduates  of  technical 
schools  in  the  selection  of  young  men  who  are  expected 
to  learn  the  business  and  to  become  in  future  the  heads 
of  departments  and  general  managers.  —  President 
Henry  Morton,  in  Success. 

e.  The  wheel  turns  fastest  in  the  University  prison- 
house  when  pale  boys  and  gaunt  young  men  come  to  me 
with  confidences  of  their  lifelong  hope  to  come  to  fair 
Harvard,  of  mothers'  sacrifices  and  fathers'  toil,  of  the 
parson's  chiding  against  the  influence  of  the  non-secta- 
rian college,  and  the  schoolmaster's  prophecy  that  Cam- 


OBDER    OF  WORDS  IN  THE  SENTENCE     221 

bridge  will  be  all  proud  looks  and  cold  hearts,  and  finally 
of  their  own  determination  to  work  their  way  through, 
no  matter  what  the  cost  in  comfort  and  energy.  It  is 
the  same  soul-stirring  story,  whether  it  speaks  from  the 
butternut-colored  coat  from  Georgia,  the  coarse  gray 
homespun  from  Cape  Breton,  or  the  shiny,  long-tailed 
black  frock  from  Nebraska.  Beseeching,  honest,  or 
searching  eyes  look  straight  into  the  heart,  and  the 
heart  would  not  be  good  for  much  if  it  did  not  grow 
warmer  under  their  scrutiny.  Generally  all  except  the 
least  useful  and  adaptable  of  such  men  find  ways  of 
earning  much  of  that  which  is  needed  to  keep  them 
decently  clad  and  safely  fed  during  their  years  of  study ; 
but  it  is  anxious  work  starting  them  on  self-support,  and 
helping  them  to  drive  away  homesickness. 

There  is  a  feeling  of  gritting  sand  and  the  lack  of  oil 
in  the  wheel  when  purse-proud,  over-dressed,  loud-voiced, 
tired-eyed  youths  drift  to  me  in  their  attempts  to  escape 
parts  of  their  college  duties.  They  have  come  from 
shoddy  homes  to  mix  shoddy  with  the  honest  stuff  of 
Harvard  life.  It  would  be  better  for  them,  for  us,  and 
for  all  their  associates,  if  they  never  set  foot  on  scholastic 
ground.  Still  they  serve  as  a  foil  to  the  noble-hearted 
men  of  wealth  who  are  the  glory  of  a  college,  —  men 
who  are  strong  in  their  willingness  to  aid  others,  pure 
in  heart,  active  in  body,  loyal  to  the  ideals  of  the  Uni- 
versity.—  BoLLES  :  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp  Water. 

Exercise  58.  (Written.)  Rewrite  the  fol- 
lowing sentences  from  the  point  of  view  of 
structure,  changing  the  periodic  structure  to 
the  loose  when  the  latter  seems  the  more  appro- 
priate type,  and  remedying  the  awkwardness 


222  THE  SENTENCE 

of  sentences  which  unsuccessfully  mix  the  two 
types. 

1.  Three  summers  ago,  to  rejoin  my  family  in  north- 
ern Michigan,  I  left  the  city.  On  a  little  peninsula 
which  juts  out  into  Lake  Michigan,  a  group  of  houses, 
dignified  by  the  name  of  Edgewood,  stands.  Undis- 
tracted  by  the  bustle  of  hotel  life,  a  few  sensible  people 
live  here.  To  get  away  from  town  for  a  few  days  and 
lounge  in  the  pine  woods  about  Edgewood,  to  me  is 
always  very  pleasant. 

2.  When  I  came  into  the  house  this  morning,  I  con- 
sidered it  a  good  omen  when  I  saw  that  the  Grand  Penal 
Bill  had  been  returned  to  us. 

3.  Afterwards  we  found  out  that  the  bird  was  an 
eagle  when  it  fell  from  where  we  shot  it. 

4.  When  I  first  took  my  seat  in  this  House  of  Parlia- 
ment, I  was  so  impressed  with  a  sense  of  responsibility 
that  I  thoroughly  studied  the  American  question,  as  I 
was  unwilling  to  change  my  mind  with  the  arrival  of 
each  mail  from  America. 

5.  We  extemporized  a  tripod,  as  the  house  stood  on  a 
slope,  and  as  there  was  no  post  or  fence  in  front  to  set 
the  camera  on.  Since  a  great  cloud  now  overspread  the 
sky,  and  shut  out  all  direct  light,  a  new  trouble  arose. 
The  group  had  been  lessened  by  the  baby's  going  to  sleep 
by  the  time  the  cloud  had  passed. 

Exercise  59.  {Written.}  Revise  the  sen- 
tences of  your  themes  with  reference  to  loose- 
ness and  periodicity.  Where  suspense  is  needed, 
or  qualifying  thoughts  should  precede  the 
thought    qualified,    change   loose    sentences    in 


UNITY  OF  FORM  IN  THE  SENTENCE     223 

whole  or  in  part  to  periodic.  When  a  sen- 
tence is  needlessly  formal  and  stiff,  change  it 
in  whole  or  in  part  to  the  simpler  type. 

§  4.  Unity  of  Form  in  the  Sentence.  —  In 
onr  revising,  it  is  well  to  pay  attention  to 
unity  of  form.  This  doctrine  may  be  stated 
in  an  elementary  way  as  follows  :  "  A  sentence 
should  be  uniform  in  structure.  There  should 
be  no  sudden,  unnecessary  change  in  subject, 
or  in  the  form  of  the  verb.  Sometimes  a  sen- 
•  tence  is  pulled  about  by  the  mind  as  a  child  by 
a  cross  nurse.  It  begins  in  the  active  voice,  it 
is  twitched  aside  into  the  passive.  It  begins 
as  the  act  of  one  person,  it  ends  as  that  of 
another.  Even  so  admirable  a  writer  as  John 
Fiske  has  this  sentence  :  '  But  Howe  could  not 
bear  to  acknowledge  the  defeat  of  his  attempts 
to  storm,  and  accordingly,  at  five  o'clock,  with 
genuine  British  persistency,  a  third  attack  was 
ordered.'  This  'British  persistency'  is  evi- 
dently Howe's.  Why  not  give  him  full  credit 
for  it,  thus?  —  'But  Howe  could  not  bear  to 
acknowledge  the  defeat  of  his  attempts  to  storm, 
and  accordingly,  at  five  o'clock,  with  genuine 
British  persistency  he  ordered  a  third  attack.'  "  ^ 

1  A  First  Manual  of  Composition,  Chapter  V. 


224  THE    SENTENCE 

The  foregoing  sentence  of  Mr.  Fiske  is  a 
very  simple  instance  of  weak  unity  of  form. 
Less  simple  instances  are  only  too  easily  found. 
Most  students  pay  little  regard  to  similarity 
of  form  in  the  structure  of  successive  clauses 
and  phrases ;  and  though  they  can  hardly  be 
blamed  for  this  neglect  when  their  mind^  are 
engaged  in  the  work  of  actual  composition, 
it  should  be  possible  for  them,  in  revision,  to 
remedy  many  cases  of  the  fault.  A  scrupulous 
writer  will  not  leave  in  a  final  draft  such  an 
expression  as  "the  whale  and  fishing  Indus-' 
tries  "  when  he  means  "  the  whaling  and  fishing 
industries'"  or  ''the  whale  and  fish  industries." 
He  will  not  say  that  "the  Cavalier  was  pol- 
ished and  courteous,  a  great  contrast  to  the 
Puritans,"  for,  having  said  "  Cavalier "  rather 
than  "  Cavaliers,"  he  will  say  "  Puritan  "  rather 
than  "Puritans.''  He  will  not  in  his  sane 
mind  declare  that  "Lady  Macbeth  probably 
killed  herself  in  her  frenzy  and  deranged 
mind,"  but  that  "Lady  Macbeth  probably 
killed  herself,  in  her  frenzy  and  derangement 
of  mind."  He  may  recognize  an  obsolete  lit- 
erary license  in  such  a  construction  as  this : 
"  King  Charles  tried  a  plan  which  he  had  con- 
ceived, but  he  never  did  try  it  before,"  yet  he 


UNITY  OF  FORM  IN  THE  SENTENCE      225 

will  see  that  even  in  colloquial  speech  to-day 
such  constructions  would  be  inexcusable,  and 
his  own  version  of  the  sentence  would  be, 
"  King  Charles  tried  a  plan  which  he  had  con- 
ceived, but  which  he  had  never  tried  before." 

An  eye  for  this  sort  of  error  is  soon  acquired, 
and  instances  detected  which  are  not  easily 
remedied  except  by  complete  recasting  of  the 
sentence.  The  following  is  very  awkward,  but 
hard  to  mend : 

In  reading-  Macaiilay  my  first  impression  was  how  thor- 
oughly he  convmces  one  of  the  truth  of  his  assertions. 

The  trouble  here  is  a  mixture  of  direct  and 
indirect  discourse.  We  may  make  the  "im- 
pression "  a  sort  of  quotation,  enclosing  it  in 
single  quotation  marks  or  at  least  beginning  it 
with  a  capital: 

In  readnig  Macaulay,  my  first  impression  was :  How 
thoroughly  he  convinces  one  of  the  truth  of  his  as- 
sertions ! 

Or,  we  may  radically  change  the  whole  structure : 

In  reading  Macaulay,  my  first  impression  was  that 
he  succeeds  with  surprising  thoroughness  in  convincing 
one  of  the  truth  of  his  assertions. 


226  THE  SENTENCE 

Exercise  60.  (Oral.)  The  following  sen- 
tences contain  more  or  less  obvious  violations 
of  unity  of  form.  Point  out  each  violation,  and 
explain  the  nature  of  the  unnecessary  change  of 
structure,  e.g.^  singular  to  plural,  adjective  to 
noun,  active  to  passive,  relative  clause  to  inde- 
pendent ;  then  remedy  the  fault. 


r 


1.  a.  Friar  Bacon  had  just  one  servant,  named  Miles, 
^who  was  a  half-witted  fellow,  and  although  all  had  de- 
serted the  Friar,  Miles  stood  by  him. 

h.  The  Cardinal  told  Friar  Bacon  that  he  did  not  want 
the  secret  of  his  magic  powder,  but  to  tell  him  the  other 
secret. 

c.  Once  upon  a  time,  in  Turkey,  the  minister  of  war 
called  upon  the  chief  farrier  to  have  two  hundred  thou- 
sand horseshoes  ready  by  the  next  morning,  and  if 
they  were  not  done  the  farrier's  head  would  pay  the 
penalty. 

d.  Wasn't  it  Dr.  Johnson  that  Boswell  used  to  copy 
down  everything  he  said  ? 

e.  We  had  picked  the  basket  almost  full  when  my 
cousin  called  to  me  to  watch  out,  there  is  a  large  snake 
going  to  bite  you. 

/.  The  Russian  government,  suspecting  something,  and 
in  order  to  secure  the  loyalty  of  the  Kalmucks,  demanded 
more  mihtary  service  from  them. 

g.  When  Cedric  and  Athelstane  had  captured  Gurth, 
and  were  travelling  through  the  woods,  it  was  Wamba 
who  loosened  the  cords  with  which  Cedric's  hands  were 
bound,  and  while  Cedric  was  talking  to  Isaac,  Gurth 
escaped. 

h.  Once  upon  a  time,  in  Turkey,  the  minister  of  war 


UNITY  OF  FORM  IN   THE  SENTENCE     227 

ordered  of  the  chief  farrier  of  the  army  two  hundred 
thousand  horseshoes,  to  be  made  by  the  next  morning  or 
his  head  would  be  cut  off. 

i.  The  tin  pans,  blankets,  and  other  articles  were  scat- 
tered aboat  the  ground,  including  the  oil  stove,  which 
was  upset  and  a  gallon  of  oil  w^ent  to  waste. 

j.  The  Indians  rushed  in  for  plundering,  especially  rum. 

2.  a.  I  also  noticed  the  forests,  which  were  brown,  but 
they  will  soon  be  green  again. 

h.  It  is  used  as  an  office  building,  with  stores  on  the 
first  floor,  and  has  a  theatre  on  the  roof. 

c.  The  banks  are  irregular,  in  some  places  sloping 
gradually  to  the  water,  and  in  other  places  they  appear 
to  go  straight  down. 

d.  On  the  other  side  of  the  road,  and  farther  back,  are 
some  more  trees  which  look  to  me  as  if  they  were  either 
a  public  park,  somebody's  orchard,  or,  perhaps,  it  is  a 
thick  wood. 

e.  The  heaps  of  stones  must  have  been  either  deposited 
there  by  a  glacier  or  else  they  have  been  taken  out  of  the 
road  to  make  it  smooth. 

/.  He  has  a  fine  physique ;  a  large  chest,  broad  shoul- 
ders, muscles  like  iron,  and  of  sturdy  build. 

g.  On  one  side  of  the  hill  stands  a  house,  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  vicinity  have  many  yarns  about  its  past 
history. 

h.  The  glacier  tapers  down  till  it  gives  rise  to  a  little 
stream,  which  is  not  distinctly  shown  in  the  picture  ;  but 
I  am  sure  it  is  there. 

3.  a.  Taxation  by  imposition  is  harder  than  to  tax  by 
grant. 

h.  An  ideal  boy  should  be  hospitable  and  not  stingy, 
not  afraid  of  getting  dirty,  and  yet  not  always  to  be  dirty. 

c.  The  Cavaliers  were  brave,  loyal,  and  courteous  men, 
who  were  not  so  bi'^oted  as  the  Puritans. 


228  THE  SENTENCE 

d.  Like  the  Cavaliers,  Milton  loved  to  read  polite 
literature;  and  he  also  had  their  love  for  beautiful 
things  of  every  sort. 

e.  My  ideal  boy  would  not  be  profane  or  have  any 
vices,  a  good  workman,  thoughtful  and  skilful,  a  good 
musician,  etc. 

f.  Hence  he  argues  that  England  would  be  more  en- 
riched by  leaving  the  colonies  alone  and  receive  their 
grants,  than  she  would  by  attempting  to  tax  them. 

g.  My  proposition  is  peace.  It  will  not  fill  your  lobby 
with  colony  agents  that  require  the  interposition  of  au- 
thority to  keep  order,  but  peace  that  will  restore  good 
feeling. 

h.  The  Prince  of  Morocco  betrays  insincerity  of  char- 
acter by  flattering  Portia,  and  in  his  speech. 

i.  Burke  desires  that  the  colonies  be  allowed  to  carry 
on  their  own  government,  and  that,  instead  of  taxes  being 
levied  upon  them,  they  be  allowed  to  make  grants  upon 
the  petition  of  the  home  government. 

j.  Burke  says  that  the  rules  of  a  government  must  be 
adapted  to  the  circumstances,  and  not  to  try  the  impos- 
sible task  of  governing  America  as  if  it  were  just  at  hand. 

k.  How  then  was  concession  to  the  English  colonies 
to  be  made?  Act  according  to  the  English  constitution, 
and  treat  the  colonies  as  England  treated  Ireland  and 
Wales. 

Z.  He  wishes  America  to  be  left  alone  since  repre- 
sentation is  impossible,  and  with  no  interference  on  the 
part  of  England. 

4.  a.  Addison  was  a  moral  satirist,  unlike  the  cutting 
manner  of  Swift  or  the  ridiculing  manner  of  Voltaire. 

h.  Satan  differed  from  Moloch  in  that  he  was  not 
moved  by  hope  of  revenge  alone,  but  had  higher  aims. 

c.  I  think  that  Viola  and  Juliet  are  too  much  alike  to 
draw  a  comparison. 


ELLIPSIS  229 

d.  Macaulay  is  direct ;  not  at  all  figurative,  in  his  style, 
but  withal  he  possesses  elegance  and  impressiveness. 

€.  Of  Milton's  two  famous  works  on  liberty  one  was 
called  the  Defensio  Populi,  and  the  other  was  concerning 
the  freedom  of  the  press  ;  this  one  was  called  Areopagifica. 

Exercise  61.  QOral.')  Revise  the  sentences 
of  your  themes  to  improve  their  unity  of  form. 

§  5.  Enipsis.  — By  ellipsis  is  meant  the  omis- 
sion of  a  word  or  words  needed  in  a  sentence 
to  complete  the  unity  of  thought,  the  unity  of 
form,  the  coherence,  or  the  emphasis.  Ellipses 
are  as  frequent  in  themes  as  sins  of  omission 
are  in  lives.  We  are  so  sure  of  having  cap- 
tured our  own  thought  by  the  choice  of  the 
right  phrases  that  we  neglect  those  chinks  and 
crevices  through  which  thought  escapes  like  an 
Ariel,  or  sprite  of  the  air.  Indeed,  a  good 
share  of  the  commoner  ellipses  come  to  pass 
mechanically,  like  lapses  in  speech.  We  think 
we  have  actually  written  a  certain  small  word, 
—  the^  or  an^  or  hy^  or  m,  —  when  in  reality  the 
hand  has  glided  on  to  some  more  important 
word,  leaving  the  monosyllable  still  in  the  brain. 

Again,  ellipsis  is  often  due  to  the  instinct 
of  avoiding  repetition.  But  men  think  in  such 
ways  that  the  same  prepositional  or  conjunctive 
relationship  occurs  iiiofe  than  once  in  a -brief 


J^ 


230  THE  SENTENCE 

space,  and  when  repetition  of  relationship 
occurs,  there  should  usually  be  repetition  of 
the  relation- word.  What  prepositions  should 
be  repeated  at  the  points  indicated  by  carets  in 
the  following  sentence  ?  "  We  knew  by  the 
languid  way  ^  which  he  walked,  and  ^  the 
plank  he  carried,  and  j^  the  dark  trail  left  on 
the  ground  from  that  plank,  that  Peter  had  got 
something  to  make  a  bench  ^,  and  that  he  had 
reached  out  too  far  from  the  dock  in  getting  it." 
In  like  manner,  the  proper  repetition  of  con- 
junctions is  often  neglected,  particularly  the 
repetition  of  that.  Here  the  influence  of 
spoken  English  is  to  be  reckoned  with  ;  it  is 
not  permissible  in  writing  to  omit  that  so  freely 
as  in  speaking.  Orally  we  may  say,  "  I  knew 
he  was  going,  and  had  room  enough  in  the  car- 
riage to  bring  back  any  parcel  I  might  send  for, 
and  had  expressed  a  willingness  to  run  errands 
for  us  all ;  yet  I  did  not  ask  him."  In  written 
work,  this  sentence  would  hardly  be  allowed 
to  stand  unless  enclosed  in  quotation  marks. 
Writing  of  his  own  experience,  a  careful  person 
would  insert  that  in  three  places  —  besides  the 
pronoun  he  twice,  the  pronoun  which  once,  and 
the  preposition  on  once  :  "  I  knew  that  he  was 
going,  that  he  had  room  enough  in  the  carriage 


ELLIPSIS  231 

for  any  parcel  for  which  I  might  send,  and  that 
he  had  expressed  a  willingness  to  run  on  errands 
for  us  all  ;  yet  I  did  not  ask  him." 

One  other  form  of  the  ellipsis  of  conjunctions 
should  be  criticized  here.  Often  a  sentence 
which  begins  on  the  pattern  of  a  compound 
sentence  containing  three  independent  clauses, 
the  first  and  second  unconnected,  actually  fin- 
ishes with  a  subordinate  clause  for  the  third 
member,  and  yet  leaves  the  independent  state- 
ments without  a  conjunction  : 

The  full-back  got  the  ball,  ran  with  it  until  he  got 
near  his  enemy,  when  he  threw  the  ball  to  Charles. 

What  conjunction  should  be  inserted  before 
ran? 

In  the  case  of  verbs,  there  is  one  question 
affected  by  oral  usage.  The  neglect  to  repeat 
the  verbal  part  of  the  infinitive,  leaving  only 
the  prepositional  sign,  to^  is  sometimes  permis- 
sible, as  regularly  in  conversation  ;  but  the 
effect  is  always  colloquial,  and  often  beneath 
the  dignity  of  the  subject.  The  ellipsis  at  the 
end  of  the  following  passage  is  bad  ;  "  go  " 
should  be  supplied : 

Satan  tells  the  fallen  angels  of  a  new  creature  called 
Man.  He  proposes  to  find  out  about  this  being,  and 
since  no  one  else  proposes  to  go,  he  offers  to. 


232  THE  SENTENCE 

Exercise  62.  (Oral.}  Supply  needed 
words  at  the  places  indicated  in  the  follow- 
ing sentences  by  carets : 

1.   a.  There  was  not  one  of  them  ^  came. 

b.  The  train  got  so  far  away  /^  we  were  unable  to  see 
it  any  longer. 

c.  Portia  w^  an  ted  her  cousin  to  lend  her  notes  and  ys^ 
wear  his  garments. 

d.  At  Central  Music  Hall  to-morrow,  at  both  a  matinee 
and  /^  night  performance,  Palmer  Cox  and  Malcolm  Doug- 
las's new  spectacular  production, "  The  Brownies  in  Fairy- 
land," wall  be  the  attraction. 

€.  Getting  off  in  the  morning  instead  of  the  evening 
was  lucky  for  them  because  y^  they  would  have  /\  no 
place  to  stay  over  night. 

/.  A  comparative  quiet  followed  the  repeal  of  this  act 
for  several  years,  but  ^  was  brought  to  an  end  in  1779 
by  a  bill  providing  for  taxes  on  several  articles  of  import. 

g.  Several  accidents  occurred.  One  was  /\  the  engine 
became  unmanageable  and  dashed  into  an  open  draw. 

h.  We  were  so  happy  in  those  days  y\. 

i.  He  knew  most  of  the  estates  in  the  surrounding 
country,  and  ^  by  whom  they  were  owned. 

j.  Burke  endeavored  to  prove  y\  his  solution  of  the 
problem,  namely,  that  England  should  concede  as  much 
as  was  necessary. 

k.  Moloch,  the  fallen  angel,  wished  to  revenge  ^  the 
heavenly  power  which  had  cast  him  down. 

I.  The  evil  angels  then  devote  themselves  to  various 
occupations  and  pursuits  /\  until  Satan  returns. 

m.  His  scheme  seemed  to  further  /^  the  country,  but 
really  did  not  /^. 

n.   Charles  A. -Joslyn,  Jr.,  proprietor  of  Grolden  Rule 


ELLIPSIS  233 

Park,  says  that,  owing  to  complaints  of  ^  noise  ^  made 
by  the  children  in  his  playground,  he  has  decided  to 
curtail  to  some  extent  his  original  plan. 

0.  He  never  threw  the  newspaper  on  the  floor,  or  /^ 
anything  else  that  would  annoy  his  hard-working  mother. 

5!."a.  This  apple  is  different  /^  and  sweeter  than  the 
others. 

[But  see  page  205.] 

b.  This  coffee  is  as  good  /^  if  not  better  than  that  we 
used  to  get  at  home. 

[But  see  page  205.] 

c.  It  was  a  small  frame  house,  with  a  door  on  each 
side,  /\  with  only  two  windows. 

d.  He  is  a  kind  of  a  slouch,  for  either  his  shoes  are  not 
blacked,  or  his  necktie  ^a^  on  straight,  or  his  trousers  ^  baggy. 

3.   a.   I  am  very  /^  pleased  to  meet  you. 

b.  Some  argue  /^  force  would  be  worth  while  using. 

c.  I  find  /\  the  American  love  of  freedom  springs  from 
six  causes. 

d.  Hunting  the  deer  is  not  like  hunting  the  bear  or  /^ 
tiger. 

e.  The  great  beauty  of  Gray's  Elegy  cannot  fail  to 
impress  /^  the  dullest  reader. 

/.  An  Englishman  is  the  worst  person  in  the  world  to 
argue  liberty  /\  from  another  Englishman. 

g.  To-day  I  am  not  going  to  argue  ^  taxation.  It  is 
too  deep  /^  for  me. 

h.  Coffee  does  not  seem  to  stimulate  him  as  it  does  ^ 
many  people. 

i.  It  was  hard  for  Milton  to  attain  ^  such  magnificent 
poetry  in  a  philosophical  age. 

j.  The  character  of  John  Milton  was  a  combination 
of  the  y\  two  classes,  the  Puritans  and  the  Cavaliers. 

k.  The  distance  of  the  colonies  from  England  is  ^  last 
but  not  ;^  least  of  the  difficulties  of  ruling  them. 


234  THE  SENTENCE 

I.  Burke  said  that  the  six  sources  from  which  the 
prevalent  spirit  of  freedom  had  sprung  up  were  :  religion 
in  the  northern  colonies,  the  form  of  social  life  of  the 
southern,  the  Americans'  education,  /^  form  of  govern- 
ment, ^  descent,  and  ^  remoteness  from  England. 

m.  There  is  a  very  large  body  of  American,  German, 
Jewish,  Bohemian,  Polish,  and  Italian  women  who  take 
work  home,  —  finishing  knee  pants,  trousers,  and  cloaks  ; 
the  American  ^  take  out  garments  to  make  up.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  ascertain  through  our  charity  people, 
or  through  my  own  acquaintance,  that  even  one  could 
support  herself  through  that.  —  Florence  Kelly,  tes- 
timony before  the  Industrial  Committee. 

[Notice  the  correct  repetition  of  through  in  this  sen- 
tence.] 

n.  The  student  should  learn  what  his  own  average 
page  is,  and  ^  to  prepare  any  given  number  of  words 
asked  for.  y 

V 

Exercise  63.  {Oral.^  In  the  following 
sentences  find  places  where  words  might  be 
inserted  to  advantage,  and  insert  them.  Say  in 
each  case  whether  the  change  you  make  betters 
the  unity  of  thought,  the  unity  of  form,  the 
coherence,  or  the  emphasis.  More  than  one  of 
these  principles  may  be  affected  by  inserting  a 
single  word. 

1.  a.   If  any  time  he  went  hunting,  I  went  too. 
h,   I  was  in  perplexity  how  to  get  out. 
c.    The  sergeant  used  the  word  memorize  in  the  account 
of  the  battle  to  Duncan. 


ELLIPSIS  235 

d.  We  must  take  a  boat ;  otherwise  we  shall  be  in  the 
same  predicament  that  we  were  yesterday. 

€.  Sir  Roger  never  failed  to  rebuke  those  absent  from 
some  trivial  cause  the  preceding  Sunday. 

/.  A  better  example  is  Wales,  which  for  years  was  in 
a  state  of  revolt,  but  when  it  was  given  representation  in 
Parliament,  suddenly  became  quiet  and  orderly. 

g.  Kings  have  lived  and  died ;  governments  built  up 
and  dashed  to  pieces ;  wars  begun  and  ended  since  first 
her  doors  were  opened  to  the  pious  worshipper. 

h.  When  we  arrived  home,  the  others  were  already 
there. 

i.  The  crowd  assaulted,  beat,  and  broke  the  leg  of  a 
policeman.     [Recast.] 

J.  Men  were  torn  from  the  line  and  their  clothes  torn 
from  them,  and  then  usually  killed. 

k.  Sin  recalls  to  Satan  how  she  sprang  full-grown 
from  his  head,  and  when  he  fell  from  heaven  she  too  was 
thrown  down. 

/.  When  the  wagon  was  full  of  oats,  I  drove  to  the 
elevator  in  the  town,  which  was  three  miles. 

m.  We  walked  all  over,  but  we  seemed  to  get  further 
and  further  from  what  we  sought. 

n.  The  regular  monthly  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation was  held  last  evening.  The  wives  and  husbands 
of  the  board  were  present. 

0.  I  found  the  hotel  and  houses  which  took  boarders 
were  all  full. 

p.  We  started  out  for  a  walk,  so  we  could  get  a 
chance  to  arrange  plans  for  a  camping  trip. 

q.  Moloch  says  that  they  may  be  able  to  enter  heaven, 
aided  by  hell-fire,  which  was  intended  to  be  punishment, 
and  if  not  overthrow^,  at  least  be  revenged  upon  Jehovah. 

r.  In  order  to  gain  his  ends,  he  joined  any  party  which 
seemed  favorable. 


236  THE  SENTENCE 

s.  Arrow-heads  kept  turning  up  at  a  distance  from  the 
place  where  they  belonged. 

t,  "  When  yer  boasts  as  I'm  yer  brother,  I'll  say  yer 
ain't."  —  Barrie  :   Sentiniental  Tommy. 

2.  a.    That  event  was  funnier  to  see  than  be  in. 

h.  The  house  stands  on  an  eminence,  which  helps  make 
it  look  stately. 

c.  The  windows  of  this  log-cabin  were  of  glass,  and 
the  roof  was  like  any  frame  house. 

d.  Both  men  were  rather  thick-set  and  muse  alar,  for 
they  both  enjoyed  the  chase. 

e.  One  of  the  oldest  houses  in  INTew  Hampshire  has  a 
hallway  running  through  it,  and  at  one  end  a  vestibule, 
like  on  the  limited  trains. 

f.  Above  this  is  a  large  slab  of  marble  with  writing 
on,  and  near  by  is  a  candlestick  with  seven  candles 
on. 

g.  The  house  I  am  about  to  describe  is  situated  on  a 
small  elevation,  not  exactly  a  hill,  but  large  enough  to 
describe. 

h.  The  kitchen,  instead  of  being  in  the  house  itself, 
is  a  separate  building  a  short  distance  in  the  rear  of  the 
house. 

i.  The  fresh  air  was  fragrant  from  a  showier  the  night 
before,  and  there  was  the  smell  of  smoke  lingering  from 
the  forest  fires  the  month  before. 

j.  His  voice  was  as  beautiful  in  quality  as  any  of  the 
baritone  singers  in  the  Sistine  choir. 

3.  a.    It  does  not  come  by  nature,  but  only  education. 
h.   We  have  voted  thanks  to  them  for  the  aid  they 

raised  us  in  time  of  war. 

c.  Athelstane  was  a  man  who  cared  more  for  his  food 
than  anything  else. 

d.  Bassanio  is  probably  in  love  with  Portia  from  the 
way  he  speaks. 


ELLIPSIS  237 

€.  In  the  so\ithern  colonies  where  slavery  prevails 
those  who  have  freedom  are  all  the  more  choice  of  it. 

/.  They  say  Milton  lived  in  a  critical  age,  and  therefore 
it  was  to  his  credit  to  write  so  imaginative  a  poem. 

g.  We  cannot  change  the  ancestry  of  the  Americans, 
nor  their  government  nor  religion. 

h.  There  is  a  great  difference  between  prosecuting  an 
individual  and  a  nation  at  the  bar  of  justice. 

i.  The  population  of  the  American  colonies  has  in- 
creased more  than  all  the  rest  of  our  dependencies.  The 
population  there  is  increasing  comparatively  faster  than 
our  own  land. 

J.  He  believed  the  people  should  govern  themselves, 
and  tax  themselves. 

k.  He  should  not  be  very  handsome,  but  have  an  intel- 
lectual look. 

/.  The  colonists  in  the  south  possessed,  if  anything,  a 
stronger  love  of  freedom  than  those  north. 

m.  Prince  Oubacha  was  the  ruler  of  the  Kalmucks, 
but  Zebek-Dorchi  was  a  direct  descendant  of  the  same 
family. 

n.  The  ideal  boy,  at  least  to  me,  would  not  despair  in 
a  just  cause. 

0.  In  moving,  it  isn't  much  fun  to  pack  all  jonr  spare 
time. 

p.  Yery  many  of  the  Americans  have  some  legal  train- 
ing, and  know  how  to  argue  concerning  human  rights. 
Are  such  men  going  to  permit  force  ? 

q.  No  other  nation  has  regarded  liberty  quite  as  we 
have  and  do.  Liberty  has  been  everything  to  us,  and  is 
now  to  our  children. 

r.  My  other  objections  to  force  are  it  is  but  temporary, 
it  is  uncertain,  it  but  ruins  the  colonies. 

s.  The  trade  with  the  colonies  consists  of  three  branches 
—  trade  with  Africa,  the  West  Indies,  and  North  America. 


238  THE  SENTENCE 

t.  The  great  number  of  the  colonists  shows  you  that 
America  is  not  a  paltry  excrescence  of  the  state  to  be 
treated  with  neglect,  but  is  to  be  treated  with  caution. 

u.  I  think  a  girl  who  was  in  her  place  would  have 
reason  to  consult  a  lawyer  before  she  acted. 

V.  This  man,  I  thought,  either  enjoys  hearing  himself 
sing,  or  else  torturing  his  audience. 

4.  a.  There  is  harmony,  both  in  the  thoughts  and 
verse. 

b.  In  this  ode  we  find  loftiness  both  of  thought  and 
expression. 

c.  In  this  ode  we  find  both  loftiness  of  thought  and 
expression.     . 

d.  I  do  not  think  much  of  Kipling  the  man  is  exhib- 
ited in  his  works. 

e.  Lucifer  does  and  says  things  that  men  do. 

/.  Collins's  Ode  to  Evening  is  written  in  blank 
verse,  but  it  is  so  harmonious,  the  absence  of  rhyme  is 
not  felt. 

g.  There  is  a  great  difference  between  the  poetry  of 
Dante  and  Milton. 

h.  Macaulay's  style  is  that  of  an  orator  as  much  as  of 
an  essayist. 

i.  That  "connection  is  the  soul  of  good  w^riting''  is 
even  truer  of  connection  between  paragraphs  than  be- 
tween sections. 

j.  Both  Macaulay's  sentences  and  paragraphs  carefully 
preserve  the  laws  of  unity  and  of  logical  sequence. 

k.  As  a  result  of  this,  the  writing  of  ]N"ewman  does  not 
hold  the  attention  of  the  reader,  nor  impress  him  so 
much,  as  the  writing  of  Macaulay. 

I.  In  this  poem  are  shown  the  author's  keen  observa- 
tions of  nature,  his  command  of  imagery  and  descriptive 
powers. 


WORDINESS  239 

Exercise  64.  (^Written,}  Revise  the  sen- 
tences of  your  themes,  inserting  such  words  as 
will  improve  the  unity  of  thought,  the  unity  of 
form,  the  coherence,  or  the  emphasis.  Pay 
especial  attention  to  repeating  prepositions  and 
the  article  whenever  repetition  will  be  an  im- 
provement. 

§  6.  Wordiness.  — Wordiness  is  a  self-explan- 
atory term.  The  thing  itself  is  on  the  whole 
rather  a  good  fault  in  a  young  writer.  The 
very  young  student  does  not  easily  find  words 
to  waste.  Not  until  he  grows  older,  and  not 
then  to  any  great  extent,  unless  he  is  somewhat 
impulsive  and  imaginative,  does  he  over-dress 
his  thoughts. 

Already  we  have  had  exercises  looking 
toward  the  correction  of  the  fault  as  it  affects 
the  whole  composition  and  the  paragraph. 
Every  effort  to  exclude  the  irrelevant,  or  to 
"  boil  down  "  an  unimportant  paragraph,  is  in 
some  sense  an  effort  to  avoid  wordiness. 

There  are  several  forms  of  the  fault,  some- 
times hard  to  distinguish  from  each  other. 
Pleonasm  is  the  technical  name  given  to  the 
presence  of  single  words  unnecessary  to  either 
the  grammatical  structure  or  the  writer's  mean- 
ing.    Tautology  is  the  needless  repetition  of  the 


240  THE  SENTENCE 

same  thought  in  different  words.  Might  an 
example  of  tautology  be  also  an  example  of 
pleonasm?  Circumlocution  is  writing  in  a  need- 
lessly roundabout  way,  in  such  a  structure  that 
the  excision  of  single  words  does  little  to  rem- 
edy the  fault.  Prolixity  is  spinning  a  matter 
out  with  tedious  minuteness  of  detail.  Of 
these  forms  of  wordiness,  only  the  first  three 
belong  distinctively  to  a  discussion  of  the  sen- 
tence, for  prolixity  may  not  show  itself  except 
in  a  group  of  sentences,  and  rarely  occurs  in  a 
paragraph  where  good  proportion  of  parts  has 
been  provided  for. 

In  the  case  of  pleonasm,  we  note  that  good 
usage  affects  the  subject  considerably.  In 
some  parts  of  the  country,  oral  speech  reveals 
such  pleonasms  as  "  spine  of  the  back,"  "  little 
small  boy.""  Literary  usage  admits  neither  of 
these  expressions,  although  it  admits  others 
that  are  quite  as  pleonastic,  such  as  "  sit  down," 
and  ''  great  big  boy  "  (though  it  would  recog- 
nize a  colloquial  quality  in  this  phrase).  In 
oral  usage,  "  got "  is  added  to  ''  have  "  far  more 
freely  than  in  literary  usage.  "  I  haven't  got 
any  relative  here  "  borders  on  the  vulgar.  The 
loose  colloquial  expression  would  be,  ''  I  haven't 
any  relative  here."     This  in  turn  is  less  desir- 


WORDINESS  241 

able  than  "  I've  no  relative  here."  The  strictly 
literary  usage  would  be,  "  I  have  no  relative 
here,"  an  expression  which  is  not  too  formal  for 
conversation. 

Tautology  can  usually  be  treated  as  a  form 
of  pleonasm.  In  the  sentence,  "We  live  in  a 
mighty  and  powerful,  a  great  and  vast  coun- 
try," the  dead  timber  is  easily  seen  and  cut  out. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  tautology  is  very  subtle, 
as  in  "  try  an  experiment,"  it  is  well  to  over- 
look it.  But  if  the  trouble  lies  in  a  fondness 
for  our  own  thoughts  and  a  poor  opinion  of 
the  reader's  acuteness,  we  should  try  to  learn 
that  greatest  lesson  of  art  —  that  the  half  is 
often  more  than  the  whole ;  that  the  secret  of 
being  tedious  is  to  "tell  it  all."  At  best  it  is 
hard  to  know  whether  the  amplification  we 
give  a  thought  is  of  that  helpful,  vital  kind 
which  makes  the  old  thought  almost  as  good 
as  a  new,  or  whether  it  is  but  vain  repetition,  of 
the  sort  for  which  Peter  Springle  paid  his 
money.  Peter  Springle  is  the  blacksmith  in 
Mr.  Allen's  story  of  The  Choir  Invisible, 
Here  is  the  scene  referred  to. 

O'Bannon  set  the  bottle  down,  took  up  a  goose-quill, 
and  drew  a  sheet  of  paper  before  him  to  write  Peter  the 
blacksmith's  advertisement. 


242  THE  SENTENCE 

^'My  business  is  increasing,"  prompted  Peter  still 
further,  with  a  puzzled  look  as  to  what  should  come  next. 
"  Put  that  in  !  " 

"  Of  course,"  said  O'Bannon.     **  I  always  put  that  in.'* 

He  was  thinking  impatiently  about  the  ball  and  he 
wrote  out  something  quickly  and  read  it  aloud  with  a 
thick,  unsteady  utterance  :  — 

" '  Mr.  Peter  Springle  continues  to  carry  on  the  black- 
smith business  opposite  the  Sign  of  the  Indian  Queen. 
Mr.  Springle  cannot  be  rivalled  in  his  shoeing  of  horses. 
He  keeps  on  hand  a  constant  supply  of  axes,  chains,  and 
hoes,  which  he  will  sjsll  at  prices  usually  asked  — '" 

'*  Stop,"  interrupted  Peter,  who  had  sniffed  a  strange, 
delicious  odour  of  personal  praise  in  the  second  sentence. 
"You  might  say  something  more  about  me,  before  you 
bring  in  the  axes." 

"  As  you  please." 

"  '  Mr.  Peter  Springle  executes  his  work  w^ith  satisfac- 
tion and  despatch ;  his  work  is  second  to  none  in  Ken- 
tucky ;  no  one  surpasses  him ;  he  is  a  noted  horseshoer ; 
he  does  nothing  but  shoe  horses.'  "  He  looked  at  Peter 
inquiringly. 

"  That  sounds  more  like  it,"  admitted  Peter. 

"  Is  that  enough  ?  " 

"  Oh,  if  that's  all  you  can  say  I " 

"  '  Mr.  Springle  devotes  himself  entirely  to  the  shoeing 
of  fine  horses;  fine  horses  are  often  injured  by  neglect  in 
shoeing;  Mr.  Springle  does  not  injure  Jine  horses,  but 
shoes  them  all  around  with  new  shoes  at  one  dollar  for 
each  horse.'  " 

*'  Better,"  said  Peter.  —  Allen  :   The  Choir  Invisible. 

As  for  circumlocutions,  many  will  be  found 
to     be     tautoloQfical   in    essence.        The    most 


WORDINESS  243 

noticeable  however  are  the  clauses  which  de- 
serve no  more  than  the  space  of  words  or  of 
phrases.^  When  a  writer  has  so  weakly  grasped 
his  thought  that  it  seems  to  him  complicated 
and  formidable,  he  will  tend  to  ponderous  cir- 
cumlocution. Try  to  frame  an  exact  definition 
of  something,  and  you  will  appreciate  this. 
The  word  "accommodate"  is  neatly  enough 
defined  in  the  ''  Standard "  dictionary  thus  : 
"  To  do  or  furnish  something  as  a  kindness  or 
favor  to,  or  to  save  trouble  to."  A  novice 
would  have  arrived  at  about  the  same  thought, 
by  way  of  Robin  Hood's  barn :  "  Accommodate 
means  when  you  do  something  as  a  kindness  to 
somebody  or  other,  or  when  you  furnish  some- 
thing or  other  to  somebody  or  other  as  a  favor 
to  him,  or  it  means  when  any  one  saves  you 
trouble  about  something,  or  you  save  him 
trouble  about  it."  There  was  once  —  in  that 
land  which  William  Shakspere  built  out  of  airy 
nothing — a  person  who  roved  even  more  widely 
about  this  word  "accommodate."  "Accommo- 
dated," says  Bardolph,  "that  is,  when  a  man 
is,  as  they  say,  accommodated ;  or  when  a  man 
is,  being,  whereby  a'  may  be  thought  to  be  ac- 
commodated; which  is  an  excellent  thing." 
1  AVhere  has  this  subject  been  touched  upon  before  ? 


244  THE  SENTENCE  / 

Exercise  65.  A.  QOral.^  Correct  the  pleo- 
nasms. 

1.  a.    They  were  termed  as  rivals. 
h.    Gurth  tended  to  the  swine. 

c.  There  was  not  one  of  them  came. 

d.  Charles  I  broke  all  of  his  promises. 

e.  Charles  II  was  almost  equally  as  bad. 

/.  When  we  started  out  we  did  not  intend  to  stay  only 
a  little  while. 

g.  Although  Waniba  was  a  jester  or  a  fool,  and  Gurth 
was  a  swineherd,  they  were  good  friends. 

^.  There  was  a  cow  grazing  down  near  the  river,  with 
her  bell  going  ding-dong,  ding-dong,  constantly. 

i.  The  trade  with  America  has,  between  1764  and 
1772,  grown  from  one-half  of  England's  entire  trade  to 
being  one-third. 

2.  a.  The  lava  is  not  hard  yet,  so  that  you  can  walk 
on  it ;  for  if  you  do  you  will  smell  leather  burning. 

h.   Both  Rebecca  and  Rowena  were  alike  beautiful. 

c.  The  cave  was  a  beautiful  sight,  both  inside  and 
outside  of  it. 

d.  Has  it  got  your  initials  on  it  ? 

e.  The  hills  are  visible  for  miles  away. 

/.    There  are  hundreds  of  windows  in  every  part  of 
the  cathedral. 
"^g.   It  is  a  building  of  about  seventeen  stories  in  height. 

h.  Every  second  there  are  thousands  of  tons  of  water 
which  go  pouring  over  the  falls  of  Magara. 

I.  Are  there  any  apple  trees  on  the  place  ?  ISJ'ot  that 
I  remember  of. 

/.  The  lover  of  history,  romance,  and  art,  will  always 
look  upon  Canterbury  with  reverent  awe  and  respect. 

k.   It  will  be  almost   impossible   for  Automedon  to 


WOBDINESS  245 

escape  from  the  horses  without  some  mjury,  and  prob- 
ably a  fatal  one. 

l.  When  a  storm  has  spent  itself  again,  you  can  often 
see  the  lightning  still. 

3.  a.  The  man  was  a  hero,  and  his  name  is  worthy 
enough  to  be  publislied. 

b.  His  style  is  very  concise,  and  so  much  so  that  at 
times  it  is  vague. 

c.  Satan  was  king  of  the  fallen  spirits,  but  for  all 
this  they  and  he  were  all  united  in  a  common  misfortune 
which  put  them  all  on  a  common  footing. 

d.  Some  of  his  thoughts  we  can  find  expressed  in 
nearly  the  same  manner  in  some  of  the  poems  of  pre- 
ceding writers. 

e.  Charles  was  a  man  who  when  he  wanted  anything 
from  parliament  he  would  make  all  kinds  of  promises 
which  he  never  intended  to  keep. 

Exercise  65.  B.  QOral.}  Correct  tautology 
in  the  following  sentences. 

1.  a.    We  boys  sat  up  and  talked  till  midnight,  but  still 
we  hated  to  turn  in,  —  for  it  was  so  very  hot. 
h.   Moloch  was  actuated  by  feelings  of  hatred. 

c.  It  was  a  lonely  place,  and  the  loneliness  added  more 
fuel  to  my  fear. 

d.  The  temperature  was  so  high  that  we  could  not 
stay  in  the  car,  it  was  so  hot  and  close. 

€.  To  judge  from  its  appearance,  the  porch  was  very 
comfortable  looking. 

/.  The  tender  love  with  which  Mary  regards  the  babe 
shows  how  much  she  loves  it. 

g.  There  are  also  some  very  fine  heavy  horses,  which 
would  make  fine  horses  for  drawing  heavy  loads. 


246  THE  SENTENCE 

h.  The  cawing  of  a  crow  was  audible  at  a  great  dis- 
tance, for  the  serenity  of  the  place  did  not  prevent  noises 
from  being  heard  afar  oif. 

i.  The  sight  from  the  car  was  so  beautiful  that  it 
made  me  feel  as  if  I  wished  I  were  there  already. 

2.  a.  The  causes  of  this  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  in  the 
colonies  may  be  attributed  to  six  reasons. 

b.  They  are  very  tigorous  poems  and  full  of  energy, 
which  gives  them  force. 

c.  The  two  poems  abound  in  many  witty  sayings. 

d.  Though  I  do  not  wish  to  cast  reproach  upon  the 
preceding  Parliament,  nevertheless  at  the  same  time  it  is 
notorious  that  it  has  kept  America  in  turmoil. 

e.  Mary  was  a  Catholic,  and  lier  reason  for  executing 
so  many  persons  was  on  account  of  her  religious  belief. 

/.  The  efficacy  of  this  mild  and  excellent  law  depends 
upon  its  mildness. 

g.  The  reason  for  believing  this  is  because  it  is 
probable. 

h.  Happily,  by  a  merciful  combination  of  fortuitous 
circumstances,  not  a  life  was  lost,  although  it  was  only 
by  the  narrowest  chance  that  an  appalling  disaster  was 
averted. 

^.  "  Prevent,"  as  used  by  Shakespere,  means  to  go 
before,  or  anticipate.  It  has  since  become  used  with 
almost  the  opposite  meaning.  "  Let,"  as  used  in  Shak- 
spere,  has  a  meaning  similar  to  that  of  '' prevent,"  as 
used  in  its  present  sense.  By  a  singular  transformation 
of  time  both  "  let "  and  "  prevent,"  which  had  oppo- 
site meanings  ia  Shakspere's  time,  have  each  come  to 
have  the  opposite  meaning  to  that  which  they  had  at 
that  time,  as  in  Shakspere's  time  "  let "  meant  the  very 
opposite  of  what  it  means  now.  The  same  is  the  case 
with  "  prevent."  And  as  "  let  "  and  "  prevent  "  were 
opposites  in  Shakspere,  so  by  meaning  the  opposite  to 


WORDIJSTESS  247 

what  they  did  then  they  are  still  opposite  at  the  present 
time. 

ExEKCiSE  66.  QWrltten,^  Give  the  following 
exposition  a  more  concise  form,  omitting  all 
unnecessary  words,  and  reducing  roundabout 
clauses  to  phrases  or  single  words.  The  pas- 
sage should  be  reduced  from  185  words  to  100. 

The  case  of  Miss  Marlowe,  who  was  a  young  actress 
who  died  at  a  recent  date  while  she  was  on  the  stag^of  a 
theatre  located  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  the  per- 
formance was  going  on,  has  called  the  attention  of  the 
public  to  the  nervous  strain  which  is  so  peculiar,  and 
which  always  attends  the  life  that  an  actor  leads.  In  the 
case  of  many  persons  who  act,  the  occupation  which  they 
profess  is  a  constant  interplay  of  all  that  excites  and  all 
that  exhausts ;  and  it  often  happens  that  the  engage- 
ments such  a  person  has  made  must  be  kept,  no  matter 
what  the  conditions  of  the  health  of  the  person  who  acts 
may  be;  for  there  is  no  manager  who  can  aft'ord  to  de- 
pend on  those  persons  who  are  merely  substitutes.  And 
although  there  are  hundreds  of  persons  who  try  to  see  if 
they  are  able  to  live  by  the  histrionic  profession,  there 
are  not  more  than  a  few  who  win  an  income  of  such  ade- 
quate size  that  it  permits  those  who  win  it  to  lay  by  from 
their  labors  for  repairs. 

Exercise  67.  {Written,')  Revise  your  five 
themes  with  reference  to  pleonasm,  tautology, 
and  circumlocution.  If  your  sentences  have 
been  well  unified  you  will  find  comparatively 
little  circumlocution. 


Ly 


248  THE  SENTENCE 

§  7.  Reference.  — If  the  words  of  the  sentence 
are  coherently  arranged  and  no  unwarranted 
ellipses  permitted,  there  will  be  comparatively 
little  trouble  in  determining  the  reference  of 
words.  Pronouns  and  adverbs  will  stand  near 
to  the  nouns  and  verbs  which  they  modify,  and 
their  allegiance  will  thus  be  clear. 

But  sometimes  a  wrong  reference  is  due,  not 
so  much  to  bad  order  of  words,  as  to  careless 
choice  of  the  reference  word. 

Exercise  68.  (Oral.)  Select  more  definite 
expressions  of  reference  than  those  italicized  : 

1.  The  Cyclops  in  rage  broke  off  a  piece  of  a  hill  and 
threw  it  where  the  sound  came  from,  ivhich  hit  the  rudder. 

2.  "  Therefore,"  said  Burke,  referring  to  England 
and  America,  "  as  long  as  the  ocean  lies  between  us,  our 
power  is  weakened." 

3.  Milton  recognized  the  benefits  which  would  be 
derived  from  a  free  press  and  unfettered  private  judg- 
ment, and  accordingly  labored  for  it. 

4.  When  Milton  saw  a  wrong  he  wrote  against  it  so 
strongly  that  other  people  took  up  the  crusade,  whereupon 
Milton  went  on  to  the  next. 

5.  The  colonists  already  owned  much  more  land  than 
was  occupied,  tohich  could  not  be  taken  from  them. 

6.  The  Indians  were  determined  to  slay  the  English  if 
they  could,  and  despite  the  orders  of  Montcalm  several 
were  murdered  before  the  march  to  Fort  Edward  began. 

7.  Antonio,  having  entered,  says  to  Shylock  that  he 
neither  borrows  nor  lends,  but  that  this  time  he  will  do 
so  for  his  friend. 


BEFERENCE  249 

A  careless  writer  sometimes  refers  to  his 
thought^  without  remembering  exactly  how  he 
expressed  that  thought,  if  indeed  he  expressed 
it  all.  The  result  is  that,  grammatically,  sin- 
gular pronouns  seem  to  refer  to  plural  substan- 
tives, or  vice  versa;  relative  pronouns  seem  to 
refer  to  verbs  ;  participles  seem  to  refer  to 
impossible  persons,  or  to  no  person  at  all.  The 
fault  is  called  the  fault  of  implied  reference'. 

Exercise  69.  (  Oral.}  Correct  implied  refer- 
ence in  the  following  sentences,  by  choosing  more 
definite  reference  words,  or  by  filling  up  ellipses. 

1.  a.  We  started  home  and  reached  it  about  supper- 
time. 

b.  Suddenly  the  door-bell  rang.     I  opened  it. 

c.  For  some  reason  he  was  unrewarded,  which  was 
looked  upon  as  an  insult. 

d.  Our  luggage  was  easily  transferable ;  so  that  w^as 
done  the  first  thing  in  the  morning. 

e.  The  next  morning  w^e  started  out  to  take  a  walk, 
which,  he  informed  me,  had  long  been  his  custom,  and  to 
which  he  strictly  adhered. 

2.  a.  The  architecture  of  an  adobe  house  is  nothing 
remarkable.  They  are  generally  built  square,  of  a  kind 
of  clay. 

b.  Each  girl  carries  a  musical  instrument.  They  are 
clothed  in  loose,  flowing  garments. 

c.  We  found  several  good  hotels,  w^hile  at  one  it  was 
very  poor. 

d.  I  will  describe  Lake  Delevan,  Wis.,  where  it  is 
good  fishing  and  is  very  quiet. 


250  THE  SENTENCE 

e.  Most  people  are  far-sighted,  and  if  they  have  it  the 
same  in  both  eyes  they  can  easily  be  fitted  to  glasses. 

/.  She  is  not  very  beautiful,  but  looks  to  be  honest 
and  good,  which  I  think  is  better  than  beauty. 

3.  a.  "  Here  you  are,  a  great,  hulking  fellow,  endowed 
by  providence  with  magnificent  strength,  instead  of  which 
you  go  about  stealing  nuts." 

h.  The  average  sentence  of  the  three  selections  is  long, 
and  the  majority  are  loose. 

c.  The  chief  merits  of  the  Puritan  character  are  devo- 
tion to  religion,  love  of  liberty,  their  conscientiousness, 
and  their  determination. 

d.  The  camp  life  was  very  pleasant,  in  addition  to 
which  it  was  very  healthful. 

e.  His  nature  was  two-sided  in  ability,  and  he  could 
show  either  one  at  pleasure. 

/.  Nearly  all  the  Northerners  are  Protestants,  a  sect 
which  has  always  loved  liberty. 

g.  The  disobedience  of  the  American  colonies  was  due 
to  their  spirit  of  liberty,  with  which  every  Englishman 
is  endowed. 

h.  Burke  attributed  the  American  love  of  liberty,  first 
to  their  descent  from  Englishmen. 

i.  Milton  was  polished  in  manner  and  profound  in 
learning.  These  he  drew  from  the  Cavalier  charac- 
ter. 

j.  We  will  now  consider  the  third  plan  of  dealing  with 
the  colonies,  namely  by  conciliation.  This  is  best  done 
by  yielding  the  point  which  is  directly  at  issue. 

k.  This  experiment  shows  that  if  the  parents  drink 
only  ifioderately  their  children  will  inherit  it  and  become 
lazy  and  weak. 

I.  Since  Lord  North's  plan  was  a  new  one  it  would 
not  be  right  to  try  it  in  a  case  like  America,  which  was  a 
very  important  colony. 


REFEBENCE  251 

m.  The  Two  Races  of  Men  was  evidently  written  by  a 
man  possessing  a  very  imaginative  mind.  The  author  lets 
this  trait  of  his  character  go  so  far  that  his  meaning  at 
times  is  hidden. 

4.  a.  Turner,  the  landscape  artist,  was  born  in  1775  and 
died  in  1851,  making  him  seventy -six  years  old.  ^ 

b.  Beelzebub  proposed  to  corrupt  mankind  as  being 
the  best  way  to  revenge  themselves  on  God. 

c.  When  sold,  no  more  can  be  had  at  this  price. 

d.  Once  while  looking  at  the  party  of  advancing  guides 
through  my  telescope,  the  leader  suddenly  disappeared ; 
the  roof  of  a  crevasse  had  given  way  beneath  him. 

e.  Once  on  the  road,  the  life  of  the  young  tramp  is 
that  of  a  slave. 

/.  Like  Lucretius,  his  pleasure  was  in  watching  the 
sea-fight  from  a  secure  place. 

g.  Masquerading  under  the  stage  name  of  ViolaViolet, 
there  was  a  gasp  of  astonishment  when  she  made  her 
first  entrance  and  was  recognized  by  her  many  friends  in 
the  audience. 

h.  Lacking  practice  in  what  might  be  called  the  tech- 
nique of  acting,  there  was  now  and  then  some  restraint 
in  pose  and  gesture,  and  the  essential  element  of  artistic 
repose  was  lacking. 

i.  Passengers  are  warned  not  to  get  off  the  train  while 
in  motion. 

Exercise  70.  (^Written.}  Revise  the  sen- 
tences of  your  live  themes,  with  a  view  to 
improving  the  reference  of  words.  ^ 

1  A  participle  which  refers  to  the  wrong  substantive  is 
called  a  misrelated  participle.  A  participle  which  refers 
grammatically  to  nothing  is  called  an  unrelated  or  dan- 
gling participle. 


CHAPTER   IV 

WORDS 

§  1.  The  English  Vocabulary.  —  In  this  section 
a  very  short  historical  sketch  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  English  vocabulary  is  given. 
Such  a  sketch  may  seem  like  a  digression  from 
our  immediate  practical  purposes  ;  but  the 
student  who  knows  nothing  of  the  history  of 
his  language  is  unable  to  use  words  with  a  full 
sense  of  their  meaning,  and  finds  it  difficult  to 
use  them  with  precision.  Tiie  word  daisy 
carries  a  fairly  definite  idea  to  uneducated 
Englishmen,  and  a  fairly  definite  though  differ- 
ent idea  to  uneducated  Americans ;  but  it 
carries  a  richer  and  more  beautiful  meaning  to 
the  educated  Englishman  or  American,  for  he 
knows  that  it  is  derived  from  day  and  eye^  and 
means  ''the  day's  eye."  The  habit  of  looking 
up  the  history  of  words  in  a  good  recent  diction- 
ary i%  invaluable.  I  say  "  good,"  and  "  recent," 
and  "dictionary,"  because  no  poor  or  old 
dictionary,  and  no  newspaper  article  on  curious 
derivations,  can  be  trusted.  To  wax  eloquent 
262 


THE  ENGLISH   VOCABULARY  253 

over  a  false  etymology  is  the  unhappy  fate  of 
tlie  careless.  Even  so  scholarly  a  man  as 
Carlyle  built  up  a  whole  book  —  and  a  very 
noble  book — around  a  false  etymology.^ 

The  enormous  treasure  of  English  speech 
contains  more  than  200,000  words. ^  Most  of 
these  were  once  foreigners  to  the  language. 
To  tell  how  each  came  to  be  English  would  be 
like  telling  the  personal  romances  of  all  the  for- 
eign-born citizens  of  these  United  States. 

England  was  once  inhabited  by  Celts,  the 
ancestors  of  the  Scotch,  Welsh,  and  Irish.  The 
Romans  under  Ca3sar  then  possessed  the  island, 
and  for  hve  hundred  years  held  the  country, 
but  they  left  us,  from  this  period  of  their  occu- 
pation, only  half  a  dozen  words  :  the  names  of 
the  camp  Qcastra)^  the  paved  road  (^strata)^  the 
settlement  Qcolonid)^  the  trench  (^fossd)^  the 
harbor  (^poj^fMS^^  the  rsiUipa,Yt  (^vallum^.  These 
words  remain  chiefly  in  the  names  of  places.  A 
sharp    eye   sees  them   in  Lancaster,   Leicester, 

^  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,  which  constantly  refers  to 
a  false  etymology  of  the  word  king. 

2  Probably  three-fourths  of  these  words  are  not  in  literary 
use  to-day.  Many  are  obsolete,  many  are  colloquial,  many 
are  scientific  or  technical.  Thousands  of  other  scientific 
terms  (names  of  genera  and  species)  are  not  included  in  the 
200,000  estimate. 


254  WORDS 

Manchester^  etc.;  Stratford^  street^  etc.;  Lin- 
coln^ etc.;  Fosswa^^  etc;  Portsmouth,  etc;  wall^ 
bailey,  bailiff  (these  three  words  being  derived 
from  vallum'). 

In  the  fifth  century,  however,  Teutonic  tribes 
began  to  cross  ,the  sea  and  invade  the  Land. 
The  Celts  were  driven  north  and  west  into  the 
mountains,  and  the  newcomers  stayed  perma- 
nently. Although  these  Teutons  —  the  Anglo- 
Saxons —  called  the  Celts  Welsh,  that  is  stran- 
gers, they  took  up  a  good  many  of  the  strangers' 
words.  They  called  many  a  river  of  the  land 
Avon,  water,  as  the  Celts  had  done  —  there  are 
fourteen  Avons  to-day  —  and  they  kept  many 
such  words  as  inch,  an  island  (in  Inchcape), 
and  kill,  a  church  (in  Kildare).  Indeed  the 
English  kept  on  borrowing  Celtic  words  for 
centuries  ;  bargain,  bodkin,  brogue,  clan,  crag, 
dagger,  glen,  gown,  mitten,  rogue,  ivhisky,  are 
familiar  examples  of  these  permanent  loans. 

The  old  English  language  itself  was  a  Ger- 
manic dialect.  Like  Latin  and  German,  it  was 
inflected  —  a  fact  that  we  see  to-day  in  the 
presence  of  such  forms  as  him,  the  old  dative 
case  for  he.  The  inflectional  endings  nearly 
all  disappeared  before  Shakspere's  time.  The 
vocabulary  of  this  Old   English  has  given   us 


THE  ENGLISH   VOCABULARY  255 

most  of  the  words  that  we  use  as  children: 
for  example,  household  names  —  Jiome^  friends^ 
father^  mother^  etc.;  names  of  many  emotions — • 
gladness^  sorrow^  love^  hate^fear^  etc.;  names  of 
most  objects  in  the  landscape  —  tree^  bush^  stone^ 
hill^  ivoods^  stream^  sun^  moon^  etc. ;  common 
names  of  animals  —  horse ^  cow^  dog^  cat^  etc. ; 
parts  of  the  body,  — head^  eye^  etc.  Our  house- 
hold proverbs  are  worded  in  Anglo-Saxon. 
"•  Fast  bind,  fast  find,"  is  an  example  of  a 
thousand  similar  saws  that  embody  the  practi- 
cal common  sense  of  the  people.  The  loves  and 
hates,  the  hopes  and  fears,  the  wit  and  rude 
wisdom  of  our  forefathers  have  gone  into 
Saxon  words.  These  are  not  merely  the  words 
of  childhood  ;  in  hours  of  deep  feeling,  in 
moments  when  the  natural  disposition  demands 
expression,  the  grown  man  speaks  in  Saxon. 
These  strong,  forcible  old  words  are  to  be  prized 
and  cherished  as  carefully  as  are  those  of  less 
emotional  suggestion — the  exact,  discrimina- 
tive Latin  words. 

In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  the  Norse 
vikings,  who  sailed  everywhere,  sailed  to  Eng- 
land, and  for  a  time  got  the  better  of  the 
Saxons  in  war.  From  1013  to  1042  there  were 
Scandinavian  kings  on  the  English  throne.     But 


256  WORDS 

the  Norse  were  not  able  to  impose  much  of  their 
own  language  upon  the  country.  Their  settle- 
ments were  named  in  Norse,  and  the  word  6«/,  a 
town,  remains  in  hundreds  of  such  places  as 
Whitby,  the  "white  town"  (from  the  white 
cliffs).  From  these  great  seamen  our  Saxon 
ancestors  learned  some  new  nautical  dialect  — 
words  like  how,  creiv,  harbor,  hawser,  lee,  stern. 

In  1066  the  Normans  conquered  the  land. 
These  were  Frenchmen  whose  fathers  had  been 
Norse.  They  brought  the  French  language 
into  their  English  court,  and  for  two  or  three 
hundred  years  there  were  two  languages  in 
England  —  French  on  the  lips  of  the  nobles, 
Saxon  on  the  lips  of  the  peasants.  But  the 
Saxon  race  was  too  strong  to  remain  an  under- 
ling. Gradually  it  mingled  with  the  Norman 
race,  picking  thousands  of  French  words  from 
the  latter,  but  keeping  its  own  ways  of  putting 
words  together. 

By  1400,  when  Chaucer  died,  there  was  a 
new  English  language,  almost  as  much  French 
as  Saxon  in  vocabulary,  but  far  less  French 
than  Saxon  in  grammar.  Since  French  is 
largely  derived  from  Latin,  it  is  clear  that  the 
total  Latin  element  in  the  vocabulary  was 
already  very  great. 


THE  ENGLISH  VOCABULARY  257 

After  Chaucer  there  came  a  general  awaken- 
ing of  interest  in  ancient  civilization;  and  in  the 
Revival  of  Learning  a  great  many  words  were 
adopted  directly  from  Latin  and  Greek.  In  the 
sixteenth  century  followed  the  Renaissance  of 
literature,  art,  and  the  sciences.  This  made  its 
way  to  England  from  Italy,  and  naturally 
Englishmen  caught  up  many  new  words  from 
Italians,  for  example  :  alert^  bankrupt^  brigade^ 
bust.,  cameo.,  cajHcature.^  cascade^  domino.,  fresco^ 
granite.,  influenza.,  7nala,ria,  niche.,  oratorio.,  piano- 
forte., ruffian.^  studio.^  tirade^  umbrella.,  vista.  The 
Spaniards,  too,  whom  Englishmen  met  in  those 
days  on  the  sea  and  at  courts,  lent  to  our 
language  such  words  as  barricade.,  bravado^ 
cigar.,  desperado.,  flotilla^  guerilla.,  merino.,  mos- 
quito., mulatto.,  renegade.,  sherry.,  tornado.,  va- 
nilla. 

The  bold  English  seamen  of  the  sixteenth 
century  sailed  back  even  from  America  with 
new  things  and  new  names  —  like  tobacco.  In 
the  next  century  the  commerce  which  followed 
hard  upon  the  voyages  of  discovery  was  the 
means  of  bringing  to  the  British  island  many 
new  words.  Here  it  may  be  said  that  the 
Dutch,  who  have  rivaled  the  English  in  com- 
merce, and  who  have  taught  the  English  some 


258  WORDS 

secrets  of  seamanship  —  as  did  the  vikings  before 
them  —  are  represented  in  English  by  words 
like  ballast^  hoom^  boor^  skipper^  sloop^  smack^ 
trigger,  yacht,  English  merchantmen  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  sailed  to 
ports  Oriental  and  Occidental.  Returning  they 
brought  from  Africa  canaries  and  gorillas,  with 
the  words  canary  and  gorilla,  and  told  of  oases  ; 
from  Arabia  they  fetched  such  names  as  admiral, 
alcohol,  alcove,  alkali,  arsenal,  azure,  chemistry, 
coffee,  cotton,  lute,  magazine,  nabob,  naphtha, 
sherbet,  sofa,  syrup,  zenith  ;  indeed,  some  of  these 
words  had  got  into  English  through  earlier 
English  travelers  —  chiefly  crusaders.  English 
sailors  and  travellers  have  brought  from  China 
silk,  tea,  etc. ;  from  India,  banyan,  calico,  muU 
lagatawny,  musk,  punch,  sugar,  thug,  etc. ;  from 
Malayan  ports,  bantam,  cockatoo,  gong,  rattan, 
sago,  etc.;  from  Persia,  awning,  caravan,  chess, 
hazard,  horde,  lemon,  orange,  paradise,  sash, 
shawl,  etc.  Few  are  the  languages  from  which 
a  British  ear  has  not  caught  a  new  term. 

In  America  we  have  many  Indian  names  of 
places  and  things.  We  have  hominy,  moose, 
opossum,  raccoon,  toboggan,  and  other  words 
from  North  American  tribes.  Mexico  gave  us 
ahowlate,  tomuto,  etc. ;  the  West  Indies,  potato^ 


THE  ENGLISH   VOCABULARY  259 

canoe^  hurricane ;  South  America,  alpaca^  qui- 
nine^ tapioca^  etc. 

In  the  present  century,  science  —  practical 
and  pure  —  has  discovered  thousands  of  facts 
and  invented  thousands  of  contrivances.  Con- 
sequently thousands  of  words  have  been  coined, 
mostly  from  Greek,  to  name  modern  inventions 
and  the  facts  of  science.  A  recent  dictionary 
found  it  necessary  to  codify  4000  technical  terms 
that  had  sprung  up  pertaining  to  electricity  and 
its  many  applications. 

The  following  prefixes  are  Anglo-Saxon. 
Think  of  words  made  with  each. 

1.  A-  =  in,  on. 

2.  Be-.  What  grammatical  effect  has  this  prefix  on 
moan,  daub,  friend  f 

3.  Foj^'.  What  effect  has  this  on  bid,  lorn  ?  Compare 
Latin  joer,  in  pei-fect. 

4.  Fore-.  5.     Gain-  =  against. 

6.  Mis-  (A.  S.  mis  =  wrong).  What  effect  on  deed, 
lead  f  A  French  prefix  from  Latin  minus  occurs  in  mis- 
chief, etc. 

7.  Th-.  8.     Un-, 
9.   With-  (A.  S.  wither  =  back). 

Similarly  think  of  words  made  with  each  of 
the  following  noun  suffixes  and  explain  the 
force  of  each  suffix. 

1 .  -ard  =  habitual.  2.  -craft. 

3.  -dom,  4»  -en. 


260  WORDS 

5.  -er.  6.  -hood. 

7.  -ing  =  son  of,  part.  Meaning  of  Browning  ?  lord- 
ing ?  tithing  ?  There  is  an  older  suffix  which  appears  in 
the  gerund  —  taking,  hunting. 

8.  -kin.  9.  -ling. 

10.  -ness.  11.  -ocJc. 
12.  -ric  =  power.  13.  -ship. 
14.  -stead  =  place.  15.  -ster. 
16.  -Wright.  17.  -ward. 

Think  of  words  made  with  the  following 
adjective  suffixes. 

1.  -ed.  2.  -en. 

3.  -em.  4.  -fast. 

5.  -fold.  6.  -fuL 
7.  -ish.  8.  -/e55. 

9.  -ZiA:e  (lie  =  body,  form).  10.  -right. 

11.  -some  =  same.  12.  -y. 

Think  of  words  made  with  the  following 
adverb  suffixes. 

1.  -es  (the  old  genitive  ending). 

2.  -ly  (lie  —  body,  form).      3.  -ling,  -long. 

4.  -meaL  5.  -om  (old  dative  plural). 

6.  -ward.  7.  -wise  =  manner. 

The  Latin  element  is  numerically  the  larger 
part  of  the  language.  It  is  therefore  impossi- 
ble to  know  well  the  English  vocabulary  except 
by  knowing  a  considerable  part  of  the  Latin 
language.      Whether   our    Latin    words    come 


THE  ENGLISH   VOCABULARY  261 

directly  through  the  ancient  classics,  or  through 
the  Romance  tongues,  such  as  French,  Italian, 
and  Spanish,  to  know  their  full  force  one  must 
know  the  original  meaning  of  them,  as  used  by 
the  ancient  race  of  world-conquerors.  Every 
instructor  in  English  watches  with  keen  inter- 
est the  progress  made  by  his  students  in  their 
Latin  studies.  The  mere  knowledge  that  a 
given  English  word  is  derived  from  a  given 
Latin  word  does  not  necessarily  give  the  student 
practical  command  of  it  in  his  writing  ;  but 
usually  such  knowledge  does  help  to  a  better 
understanding  of  the  meaning  the  word  has 
to-day,  and  so  tends  both  to  fix  it  in  memory 
and  to  insure  exact  use  of  it. 

Some  Latin  words  have  been  transferred 
bodily  into  English.  Discuss  with  the  instruc- 
tor the  derivation  of  the  present  meanings  of 
the  following  : 

Alias  =  otherwise  ;  album  =  white;  amanuensis  =  hand- 
writer  ;  animus =io[ihid ;  arena  =  sand  ;  boa  =  great  serpent ; 
came/'a  =  chamber  ;  cornucopia  =:hoYn  of  plenty;  extra:= 
beyond ;  focus  =  hearth ;  gratis  =  for  nothing ;  item  =  also ; 
memento  =  Yemembev  (imperative);  nostrum  — out  own; 
omnibus  —  for  all ;  posse  —  to  be  able ;  quorum  —  of  whom  ; 
rebus  —  by  things  ;  rostrum  =  beak ;  torpedo  =  numbness  ; 
vagary  =  to  wander;  videlicet  =  it  can  be  seen;  virago  =  a 
mannish  woman. 


262  WORDS 

Recall  English  words  having  the  following 
Latin  or  Latin-French  prefixes,  and  explain  the 
effect  of  the  prefix  on  each: 

-A-j  ab-,  abs-  =  from  ;  ad-  =  to;  amb-  =  about ;  ante-  = 
before ;  bis-,  bi-  =  twice ;  circum-  =  around  ;  cum-  (found 
in  French  col-,  com-,  cor-,  coun-)  =  with;  contra-  =  against; 
de-  =  down,  from;  dis-  (Fr.  des-,  de-)  =  asunder;  ex-  (Fr. 
es-,  e-)  =  from;  extra-  =  beyond;  in-  (Fr.  en-,  em-)  =  in, 
into  ;  in-  {il-,  im-,  ir-,  ig-)  =  not ;  inter-  =  between,  among ; 
non-  =  not ;  ob-  =  against ;  pene-  =  almost ;  per-  =  through ; 
post'  =  after ;  pi^ce-,  pre-  =  before  ;  prceter-  —  beyond ;  pro- 
(Fr.  pour  =  pol-,  por-,  pur-)  —  for;  re-  =  back;  retro-  — 
backwards ;  se-  =  apart ;  sub-  (sue-,  suf-,  sum-,  sup-,  sur-, 
SUS-)  =  under ;  super-  =  above ;  trails-  =  across ;  vice-  =  in 
place  of. 

Recall  words  having  the  following  Latin  or 
Latin-French  suffixes,  and  explain  each  in  terms 
of  the  meaning  of  the  suffix: 

-Aceous  (Lat.  -aceus)  =  made  of ;  -al  (Lat.  -alis)  =  per- 
taining to;  -able  (-ible),  Lat.  (h)abilis  —  capable  of  being; 
-pie,  -ble  (Lat.  -p/eo;)  =  f old ;  -plex  =  ioldi ',  -lent  (Lat. 
-lentus)  =  full  of;  -ose  (Lat.  -osus)  —full  of;  -und  (Lat. 
-undus)  =  full  of;  -ulous  (Lat.  -ulus)  =  full  of. 

Below  are  listed  a  few  of  the  many  Latin 
words  that  have  given  us  English  words.  Recall 
as  many  as  possible  of  their  derivatives,  and 
define  each  in  terms  of  the  original  meaning. 
Thus  acer^  sharp,  gives  us  acrimony^  sharpness, 


THE  ENGLISH  VOCABULARY  263 

aerid^  sour.  Some  member  of  the  class  may 
know  that  through  the  French  it  gives  us  vin- 
egar, sharp  wine.  Make  notes  in  your  note- 
book of  any  derivatives  that  are  new  to  you. 
j^des,  a  building  ;  cequus,  equal ;  ager,  a  field ; 
agere,  to  do ;  alere,  to  nourish  —  perfect  parti- 
ciple alius,  nourished,  therefore  high;  amare^ 
to  love ;  anima,  life  ;  animus,  mind ;  annus,  a 
year ;  aqua,  water ;  arcus,  a  bow ;  ai^dere  (pf . 
ptc.  arsus},  to  burn ;  audire,  to  hear ;  auger e 
(pf.  ptc.  auctus),  to  increase ;  brevis,  brief ; 
cadere  (pf.  ptc.  casus),  to  fall ;  candere,  to 
shine ;  capere,  to  take ;  caput,  a  head ;  cavus, 
hollow ;  cernere  (pf.  ptc.  cretus),  to  distin- 
guish ;  clarus,  clear  ;  cor,  heart ;  corona,  crown  ; 
credere,  to  believe  ;  crescere  (pf.  ptc.  cretus),  to 
grow ;  crudus,  raw  ;  cura,  care  ;  deus,  god  ; 
dlcere,  to  say;  docere,  to  teach;  doyninus,  lord 
(Fr.  damsel,  dame,  madame)  ;  domus,  a  house  ; 
ducere,  to  lead  ;  errare,  to  wander ;  facere,  to 
make  ;  jilum,  a  thread ;  finis,  the  end  ;  flos,  a 
flower  ;  fr  anger  e  (stems,  frag,  fracf),  to  break  ; 
fortis,  strong  ;  fundere,  to  pour  ;  gradus,  a  step  ; 
gravis,  heavy ;  homo,  a  man ;  imperare,  to  com- 
mand ;  jus,  right ;  leg  ere  (lect),  to  read  ;  ligo, 
to  bind  ;  litera,  a  letter  ;  loqui,  to  speak  ;  lumen, 
light ;  Z^fr7^a,  the  moon ;  magnus,  great ;  manuSy 


264  WORDS 

a  hand ;  maturus^  ripe  ;  mittere  Qmissere)^  to 
send ;  mors^  death  ;  novus^  new  ;  nox^  night ; 
omnis,  all;  ordo^  order;  pascere  (pf.  ptc.  pas- 
tus)^  to  feed ;  pati  (pf.  ptc.  passus^^  to  suffer ; 
petere,  to  seek  ;  portare^  to  carry  ;  radix^  a  root ; 
regere  (pf.  ptc.  rectus)^  to  rule  ;  scire,  to  know  ; 
sequi  (pf.  ptc.  secutus)^  to  follow ;  socius^  a 
companion ;  spirare^  to  breathe ;  tangere^  to 
touch ;  texere^  to  weave  ;  vanus^  empty  ;  videre^ 
to  see ;  vincere  (pf.  ptc.  victus)^  to  conquer ; 
vulgus,  the  crowd. 

Recall  English  words  made  from  the  follow- 
ing Greek  roots,  and  explain  each.  Make  notes 
in  your  note-book  of  those  derivatives  that  are 
new  to  you.  Anthrojjos,  a  man ;  aster ^  astron^ 
a  star ;  autos^  self ;  hiblos^  a  book ;  hios^  life ; 
deka^  ten  ;  dokein^  to  think  ;  dunamis^  power ; 
eu^  well ;  ge,  the  earth ;  graphein^  to  write ; 
^em^,  half ;  hippos^  a  horse ;  homos^  the  same ; 
kuklos^  a  circle ;  monos^  alone ;  orthos^  right ; 
pan^  all ;  petra^  a  rock  ;  philein,  to  love  ;  phone, 
a  sound ;  poiein^  to  make ;  ^  skopein,  to  see ; 
Sophia,  wisdom ;    ^eZe,  distant ;    theos,  a  god. 

Look  up  and  copy  into  your  note-book  the 
origin  of  the  following  curious  words  :  Assassin, 
august,  dahlia,  dunce,  epicure,  galvanic,  guillotine, 
1  A  maker  of  noble  verse  is  called  what  ? 


THE  ENGLISH   VOCABULARY  265 

hermetically/^  January^  jovial^  July^  lynch,  March, 
mentor,  panic,  phaeton,  quixotic,  stentorian,  tan- 
talize, taivdry.  Bayonet,  bedlam,  copper,  damask, 
dollar,  gasconade,  gypsy,  laconic,  lumber,  meander, 
milliner,  palace,  Utopian.  Abominate,  adieu,  ame- 
thyst, apothecary,  beldam,  capricious,  cemetery^ 
cheap,  checkmate,  cobalt,  curmudgeon,  dainty,  daisy, 
dismal,  emolument,  salary,  fanatic,  gentleman,  her- 
etic, inculcate,  infant,  intoxicated,  maidenhair 
(fern),  maxim,  nausea,  onyx,  parlor,  Porte  (the 
Sublime  Porte),  pupil,  silly,  sincere,  tariff,  trump 
(card).  Atonement,  lei  fry,  brimstone,  carouse, 
counterpane,  coward,  crayfish,  dandelion,  dirge, 
drawing-room,  easel,  gospel,  grove,  harbinger,  Jeru- 
salem artichoke,  line  (garments),  licorice,  nostril, 
porpoise,  quinsy,  squirrel,  summerset,  surgeon, 
thorough,  treacle,  trifle,  wassail,  whole. 

Examine  the  following  passages  separately. 
Classify  all  the  words  in  two  columns,  one  giv- 
ing those  of  Saxon  derivation,  the  other  those 
of  Latin  derivation.  Consult  the  dictionary  in 
case  of  doubt.  Then  compare  the  English  of 
Dr.  Johnson  with  that  of  Dr.  Blackmore.  The 
former  is  writing  in  his  own  person  as  an  eigh- 
teenth century  scholar  ;  the  latter  in  the  person 
of  the  stout  John  Ridd,  a  seventeenth  century 
youth. 


266  WOBDS 

No  degree  of  knowledge  attainable  by  man  is  able  to 
set  him  above  the  want  of  hourly  assistance,  or  to  extin- 
guish the  desire  of  fond  endearments,  and  tender  officioiis- 
ness ;  and  therefore,  no  one  should  think  it  unnecessary 
to  learn  those  arts  by  which  friendship  may  be  gained. 
Kindness  is  preserved  by  a  constant  reciprocation  of  bene- 
fits or  interchange  of  pleasures;  but  such  benefits  only 
can  be  bestowed,  as  others  are  capable  to  receive,  and 
such  pleasures  only  imparted,  as  others  are  qualified  to 
enjoy.  —  Dr.  Johnson  :  Rambler  for  July  9,  1751. 

When  I  had  travelled  two  miles  or  so,  conquered  now 
and  then  with  cold,  and  coming  out  to  rub  my  legs  into 
a  lively  friction,  and  only  fishing  here  and  there  because 
of  the  tumbling  water,  suddenly,  in  an  open  space,  wdiere 
meadows  spread  about  it,  I  found  a  good  stream  flowing 
softly  into  the  body  of  our  brook.  And  it  brought,  so 
far  as  I  could  guess  by  the  sweep  of  it  under  my  knee- 
caps, a  larger  power  of  clear  water  than  the  Lynn  itself 
had ;  only  it  came  more  quietly  down,  not  being  troubled 
with  stairs  and  steps,  as  the  fortune  of  the  Lynn  is, 
but  gliding  smoothly  and  forcibly,  as  if  upon  some  set 
purpose.  —  R.  D.  Blackmore  :  Lorna  Doone. 

§  2.  Local  Usage.  —  Every  language  has  its 
dialects.  In  ancient  and  mediaeval  times  dialects 
were  extremely  numerous,  because  the  common 
people  traveled  no  more  than  a  few  miles  in  a 
lifetime,  and  because,  therefore,  each  community 
gradually  fashioned  a  little  language  of  its  own. 
Modern  traveling  is  gradually  doing  away  with 
dialects  in  America,  but  certain  differences  in 
speech  still  separate  different  parts  of  the  coun- 


LOCAL    USAGE  267 

try.  The  New  Eiiglander  hears  with  surprise 
the  expression*'' Do  like  I  do  "  from  the  lips  of 
his  educated  Southern  guest,  and  when  he  trav- 
els west  hears  with  even  more  surprise  the  curi- 
ous abbreviations  ''  I  want  in,"  "  I  want  out," 
"I  want  up."  On  the  other  hand,  the  South- 
erner cannot  understand  what  the  Yankee  means 
by  ''  forehanded,"  or  by  "  long-sleeved  tire."  In 
parts  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  a  small 
tin  pail  is  called  a  "blickey  "  —  from  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch  blech^  meaning  tin.  Most  natives 
of  Chicago  never  heard  the  word. 

It  is  at  once  clear  that  the  person  who  wishes 
to  appeal  to  a  national  public  cannot  use  local- 
isms without  danger  of  failing  to  communicate 
his  thought.  Literary  usage  cannot  be  local 
usage.  We  are  trying  to  learn  literary  usage, 
and  we  must  be  on  our  guard  against  localisms. 

It  is  out  of  the  question  to  give  a  long  list  of 
American  localisms  here.  Since  no  student  is 
likely  to  use  more  than  a  few  expressions  that 
are  limited  in  use  to  his  own  county  or  state,  it 
seems  best  to  leave  the  matter  in  the  hands  of 
the  individual  instructor. 

A  few  of  the  grosser  localisms  may  be  given, 
by  way  of  example.  The  following  words  are 
not  recognized   throughout  the  nation   in   the 


268  WORDS 

sense  specified :  allow  for  thinks  believe^  etc. ; 
calculate  for  thinks  suppose;  cUver  for  kindly^ 
etc.  ;  complected  for  complexioned ;  disremember 
for  do  not  remember  ;  kind  of  for  rather  ;  heavy - 
like^  etc.,  for  apparently  heavy ^  seemingly  heavy ^ 
rather  heavy ^  etc.;  locate  for  settle  ;  middling  for 
fairly^  etc. ;  nothing  like^  nowhere  near^  for  not 
nearly ;  quite  some  for  a  good  deal^  etc.;  raise 
for  rear ;  says  I  for  said  I ;  wouldn't  wish  for 
for  don^t  care  for  ;  a  sight  for  a  great  deal^  etc.; 
unbeknown  to  for  unknown  to^  or  without  the  knowl- 
edge of ;  want  in^  up^  etc.,  for  want  to  come  in^  etc. 

Exercise  71.  (Oral.)  Correct  the  following 
sentences  by  substituting  for  the  localisms  the 
most  appropriate  correct  forms  you  can  think  of: 

1.  I  allow  it'll  rain,  though  Josiah  calc'lated  it  wouldn't, 
and  I  reckon  he's  gen'lly  right  about  the  weather; 

2.  He  looked  kind  of  sick ;  his  eyes  looked  heavy-like 
and  his  skin  was  quite  some  yellow,  though  he's  naterally 
a  bad-corn  plected  man. 

3.  "How's  crops  this  year?"  says  I.  "Middling," 
says  he  ;  "  a'most  as  good  as  in  '77,  though  I  disremember 
if  that  was  the  year  that  was  so  good.  It  was  the  year 
our  John  took  sick  with  the  inflammation  of  the  spine  of 
the  back.  He  was  a  smart  but  a  spindling  child,  and  we 
'lowed  we'd  sca'se  raise  him." 

4.  "  Please  pass  up  the  butter.  Won't  you  have  some, 
Mr.  Caleb?"     "No,  thank  you,  I  wouldn't  wish  for  any, 


VULGAB    USAGE  269 

I  don't  use  it.     There  might  be  something  wrong  'ith  it 
unbeknown  to  me." 

§  3.  Vulgar  Usage.  1  —  Much  of  what  is  called 
local  usage  is  also  vulgar  usage,  but  vulgar 
usage  is  much  the  broader  term.  There  are 
many  expressions  which,  though  used  through- 
out the  nation  by  the  uneducated,  are  not  sanc- 
tioned by  literary  authority.  It  is  of  these  that 
the  present  section  treats. 

A  vulgarism  is  a  word  or  phrase  the  use  of 
which  indicates  either  illiteracy  or  uneducated 
taste.  A  term  so  broad  must  be  divided,  if  it 
is  to  be  understood.  We  may  consider  first  the 
vulgarisms  which  show  merely  ignorance,  illit- 
eracy. A  typical  example  is  the  expression 
"ain't."  Although  Anthony  Trollope  puts  this 
"  word "  into  the  mouth  of  his  most  distin- 
guished character,  the  prime  minister  Plantag- 
enet  Palisser,  it  is  generally  recognized  as  an 
unmistakable  sign  of  illiteracy.  It  is  the 
illegitimate  contraction  used  by  the  crowd. 
Now  a  vulgarism  in  this  sense  of  the  word  need 
not  indicate  vulgarity  in  the  sense  of  bad  taste. 
Many  a  man  of  fine  instincts  says  "  ain't " 
merely   because    he    has    never    received   any 

1  Faults  of  vulgar  usage  not  explained  in  this  section  are, 
perhaps,  explained  in  Appendix  A,  Grammar. 


270  WORDS 

schooling.  You  can  indeed  easily  imagine  a 
scene  in  which  this  kind  of  vulgarism  might 
exist  in  a  sentence  which  breathed  the  highest 
courtesy.  A  farmer's  wife  welcomes  her  boy 
home  from  school.  Longing  to  hear  something 
of  the  lad's  life  away  from  home,  she  yet 
shrinks  from  asking  him  to  break  his  indiffer- 
ent silence.  '^  If  I  ain't  askin'  too  much,  my  son, 
I'd  like  to  hear  how  you  come  on  when  you 
was  up  to  school."  There  is  nothing  vulgar 
in  this  speech  except  the  illiteracy,  but  there 
would  be  brutal  vulgarity  in  the  answer  if  the 
boy  said:  "Don't  say  airCt^  Ma;  it's  vulgar." 

A  vulgarism  may  be  a  barbarism^  or  word 
incorrectly  formed,  like  ain't^  or  it  may  be  an 
impropriety  —  a  word  used  in  an  unwarranted 
sense,  like  leave^  in  ''leave  me  ^(?."  Or  it  may 
be  an  unwarranted  pleonasm  or  ellipsis. 

Exercise  72.  (OraZ.)  Each  of  the  follow- 
ing sentences  contains  an  expression  which  is 
vulgar,  but  vulgar  often  only  because  it  shows 
illiteracy.  Point  out  the  vulgarisms,  classify 
them  as  barbarisms,  improprieties,  or  pleonasms, 
and  correct  the  sentences. 

1 .  Where  is  he  at  ? 

2.  Can  you  help  me  any? 


VULGAB    USAGE  271 

3.  She  looked  awful  sweet. 

4.  Don't  blame  it  on  me. 

5.  I  don't  know  but  what  we  will  go. 

6.  I  expect  it  was  pretty  rainy. 

7.  Now,  Colonel,   you  really  hadn't   ought   to   kill 
him. 

8.  He  had  heaps  of  friends. 

9.  He  hain't  been  seen  this  year. 

10.  However  could  he  consent  to  do  such  a  deed  ! 

11.  I'll  be  back  inside  of  an  hour. 

12.  I'll  learn  you  how  if  you  wish. 

13.  I  don't  seem  to  be  able  to  get  this  lesson  nohow. 

14.  He  took  the  book  of£  of  the  desk. 

15.  Those  striped  pants  cost  eight  dollars. 

16.  Chicago  is  plenty  good  enough  for  me. 

17.  The  bucket  was  broke. 

18.  The  rope  was  froze. 

19.  Let  us  go  some  place  else. 

20.  "  Did  you  like  the  dinner  ?  "     '^  Sure." 

21.  I  suspicioned  that  it  would  result  so. 

22.  Where  are  you  going  to  ? 

23.  He  did  it,  but  he  did  it  in  an  underhanded  way. 

24.  I  want  a  lead  pencil  the  worst  kind. 

25.  A  lead  pencil  wants  to  be  long  enough  to  hold. 

26.  He  studied  for  a  lawyer. 

27.  We  got  a  hold  of  a  large  branch. 

28.  The  lad  ran  out  and  went  to  climb  on  the  coal- 
wagon. 

29.  Our   camp   up  to  Lake   Placid   is  primitive  but 
comfortable. 

30.  Last  summer  I  took  sick  with  the  grip. 

31.  The  scene  looked  to  be  a  forest. 

32.  An  ideal  boy  wants  to  be  about  six  feet  tall. 

33.  I  was  on  my  way  home  from  my  first  term  away 
to  school. 


272  WORDS 

34.  "  Have  you  drank  from  this  well  ? "  —  **  N"o,  I 
drunk  down  below  at  the  spring." 

35.  "  Did  you  sleep  good  last  night  ?  "  —  "  No,  and  I 
feel  awful  bad  this  morning." 

36.  Don't  that  dress  look  beautifully  on  her  ! 

37.  Your  flowers  look  nicely. 

38.  DeBracy  was  not  greedy,  the  way  Front  de  Boeuf 
was. 

39.  The  building  is  somewhere  aroimd  twenty  stories 
high. 

40o    The  robes  of  the  guests  are  very  fancy  and  costly. 

41.  The  windows  of  the  third  story  are  made  very 
fancy. 

42.  On  a  moonlight  night,  Lake  Michigan  is  a  beauti- 
ful scene  for  a  boat-ride ;  but  the  water  wants  to  be  very 
calm. 

43. Do  you  know  Richardson's  Dictionary  ?  —  I  said 

to  my  neighbor  the  divinity-student. 

Haow  ?  —  said  the  divinity-student.  —  He  colored,  as  he 
noticed  on  my  face  a  twitch  in  one  of  the  muscles  which 
tuck  up  the  corner  of  the  mouth  (zygomaticus  major'),  and 
which  I  could  not  hold  back  from  making  a  little  move- 
ment on  its  own  account. 

It  was  too  late.  —  A  country-boy,  lassoed  when  he  was 
a  half-grown  colt.  Just  as  good  as  a  city-boy,  and  in 
some  ways,  perhaps,  better,  —  but  caught  a  little  too  old 
not  to  carry  some  marks  of  his  earlier  ways  of  life.  — 
Holmes  :   The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  such  errors  as 
those  above  may  exist  in  the  speech  of  an 
illiterate  person  whose  tastes  are  naturally  fine 
or  even  highly  cultivated  in  some  directions. 
Something  of  the  same   sort  is  true  of  every 


VULGAR    USAGE  27 H 

vulgarism,  of  course.  Persons  may  be  good 
judges  of  pictures  or  china  or  book-binding, 
and  yet  say  "  enthuse,"  not  recognizing  in  it  an 
inexcusable  vulgarity.  But  such  a  word  as 
enthuse^  or  an  invite^  is  far  more  likely  to  indi- 
cate downright  bad  taste  in  the  person  who  uses 
it  than  such  a  word  as  ain^t.  Words  are  closely 
allied  to  manners  ;  and  when  you  hear  a  person 
speak  of  a  clergyman  as  "  Reverend  Jones," 
instead  of  "  Reverend  Mr.  Jones,"  you  naturally 
think  of  the  speaker  as  a  person  who  eats  with 
his  knife. 

The  vulgarism  of  bad  taste  may  be  a  bar- 
barism^ like  the  pretentious  ^7Z^,  or  the  con- 
traction Doc, ;  or  it  may  be  an  impropriety,  like 
the  commercial  terms  claim  that,  endorse^  balance,, 
which  are  made  to  crowd  out  correct  words 
such  as  maintain^  approve^  remainder. 

Exercise  73.  QOral.^  The  following  sen- 
tences contain  vulgarisms  (italicized)  which  are 
in  bad  taste.  Classify  them  as  barbarisms  or 
improprieties,  and  correct  the  sentences. 

1.  I  want  to  read  the  balance  of  that  novel,  to  see 
what  events  transpired 

2.  It  is  beastly  weather  for  the  alunjni  banquet  of  our 
high  school. 

3.  I  claim  that  I  have  a  right  to  claim  my  own. 


274  WOBDS 

4.  Her  beauty  and  his  money  are  a  great  combine. 

5.  Waiter,  we've  finished.     What's  the  damage  f 

6.  Hello,  Doc,  did  you  see  that  party  in  a  silk  hat 
looking  for  you  ? 

7.  I  can't  endorse  all  he  does.  There  will  be  an  ex- 
pose of  him  soon  in  the  papers. 

8.  The  starting  of  the  train  with  cheers,  brass  bands, 
flags,  and  other  enthusing  elements,  made  no  more  than  a 
temporary  break. 

9.  Right  this  way,  gents.,  for  your  hot  tamales ! 

10.  It  was  but  ill?/  done. 

11.  Did  you  get  an  invite  to  the  party  ? 

12.  Send  me  j  owe  photo.,  won't  you?  I  will  be  glad  to 
get  it.  1 

13.  He  seems  to  be  well  posted  on  politics. 

14.  I  think  Reverend  Blank  is  a  real  good  preacher  but 
I  don't  think  much  of  Mrs.  Reverend  Blank. 

15.  I  will  ask  one  of  the  other  sales-ladies  to  wait  on 
you. 

16.  I  shall  erect  a  new  residence  for  myself  soon;  I 
don't  take  much  stock  in  this  house  I'm  in. 

17.  That  story  is  pretty  good  in  the  line  of  romance. 

18.  The  coeds  were  trimmed  out  in  their  nattiest  recep- 
tion attire,  and  their  youthful  escorts  were  replete  with 
evening  dress. 

19.  We  had  an  elegant  time ;  everything  about  the 
party  was  so  tasty. 

20.  I  went  walking  with  one  of  my  lady  friends. 

21.  We  will  visit  you  next  Xmas,  and  see  how  the 
scheme  has  panned  out. 

22.  "Pres.  McKinley,  Sec.  Long,  Sen.  Lodge,  Emp. 
Wm." 

23.  She  is  rerj  Jin  de  siecle,  now  that  she  has  made 
her  debut. 

1  See  Appendix  A,  Tense  Relations. 


VULGAR    USAGE  275 

24.  On  dit  that  he  has  become  very  distingue. 

25.  With  the  advent  of  child-study,  many  a  faddist 
has  appeared  among  the  educationalists  of  the  country, 
and  wonderful  reforms  have  been  inaugurated. 

26.  The  hanjoists  came  out.  It  was  a  great  aggregation 
of  artists,  and  their  rendition  of  "  Old  Black  Joe  "  was 
simply  grand. 

Closely  allied  to  the  foregoing  vulgarisms  is 
slang.  "  Slang  "  originally  meant  the  secret  lan- 
guage of  thieves  and  vagrants.  Now  it  means 
those  mushroom  expressions  which  quickly 
grow  up  and  usually  die  as  quickly.  Often 
slang  originates  in  an  event  of  the  times,  as 
when  the  Republicans  who  voted  for  Mr.  Cleve- 
land in  1884  were  called  "  Mugwumps. "  In  case 
such  a  word  supplies  a  need,  an  "  antecedent 
blank,"  it  has  a  chance  of  finally  becoming  recog- 
nized in  literary  usage.  There  are  many  words 
which  came  into  the  language  thus.  Oftener, 
however,  slang  arises  from  boys'  desire  to 
express,  more  emphatically  than  their  limited 
vocabularies  will  permit,  their  approval  or 
disapproval  of  this  or  that.  And  there  often 
enters  into  the  situation  the  instinct  of  clan- 
nishness.  Boys  of  a  certain  age  call  younger 
boys  "kids,''  thereby  emphasizing  their  own 
remoteness  as  a  class  from  the  younger  sort, 
besides  scorn  or  tender  consideration  for  them, 


276  WOUDS 

as  the  case  may  be  Ecstatic  approval,  such 
as  language  cannot  express,  is  shadowed  forth 
in  the  phrase  "  out  of  sight,"  while  extreme  dis- 
approval is  visible  m  "rubber  neck,"  "sit  on," 
"jump  on,"  "shoot  off  the  mouth,"  etc. 

If  the  question  be  raised,  "  Are  we  never  to 
use  slang  ?  is  it  always  a  mark  of  vulgarity  ?  " 
the  answer  must  discriminate  between  slang  in 
written  work  and  slang  in  ordinary  conversa- 
tion, and  again  between  old  slang  and  new 
slang,  clever  slang  and  stupid  slang. 

Slang  should  never  appear  in  a  theme,  except 
between  quotation  marks.  There  can  be  no 
question  on  this  point.  We  may  safely  go 
farther  and  say,  slang  should  almost  never 
occur  in  a  theme,  even  between  quotation 
marks.  One  chief  object  of  themes  is  to  teach 
us  literary  usage,  and  we  shall  never  attain  to 
the  legitimate  words  if  we  constantly  admit 
cant  substitutes  for  them. 

The  use  of  slang  in  ordinary  conversation  is 
a  different  question.  Here  we  must  recognize 
that  some  slang  is  cleverer  than  other  slang, 
and  that  all  slang  is  less  objectionable  when 
fresh  than  when  stale.  The  situation  is  happily 
summed  up  by  Professor  Peck,  in  his  essay  on 
The  Little  Touches : 


VULGAR   USAGE  277 

"The  truly  enlightened  person  uses  language 
with  entire  carelessness,  but  it  is  a  masterly 
carelessness  that  always  keeps  within  the  limit 
of  good  taste.  It  is  usually  colloquial,  but  not 
vulgarly  colloquial.  It  draws  freely  upon  slang, 
yet  always  upon  the  slang  which  a  gentleman 
can  use.  It  never  savors  of  the  gutter,  and  it^ 
is  employed  either  for  its  expressiveness  or  for 
its  humor.  It  is,  indeed,  in  the  use  of  slang 
that  the  little  touches  become  very  subtle.  One 
cannot  lay  down  rules,  yet  certain  general  prin- 
ciples may  be  noted.  In  the  first  place,  speak- 
ing broadly,  the  slang  that  is  ephemeral  will 
not  be  used  save  for  the  first  few  days  after  its 
appearance.  Some  word  or  phrase  appeals  to 
the  popular  fancy,  either  because  of  its  pictu- 
resqueness  or  for  other  reasons ;  and  then  the 
enlightened  person  will  use  it  a  few  times  ;  but 
as  soon  as  it  is  heard  in  the  mouths  of  every  one, 
he  will  discard  it. as  he  would  discard  a  pair  of 
soiled  gloves  or  a  collar  that  is  frayed.  Thus, 
when  the  late  Mr.  Ward  McAllister  made  his 
famous  social  classification,  it  was  all  very  well 
for  a  time  to  speak  of  The  Four  Hundred  ;  but 
anyone  who  does  it  now  is,  by  that  very  fact,  to 
be  ruled  out  of  the  ranks  of  those  who  know 
anything  at  all. 

1  Query  as  to  the  reference  of  *'  it." 


278  JVOBDS 

"  Of  permanent  slang  one  will  avoid  the  part 
which  belongs  to  those  sections  of  society  that 
lie  between  the  highest  and  the  lowest.  Thieves' 
slang,  for  instance,  is  sufficiently  interesting, 
because  of  its  obscurity,  to  make  its  introduc- 
tion sometimes  proper  ;  so  that  one  may,  with- 
out danger  of  being  mistaken  for  something  that 
he  is  not,  speak  of  money  as  'the  long  green,' 
and  may  describe  an  untimely  revelation  as 
'blowing  the  gaff.'  Some  bits  of  boyish  slang 
are  also  quite  admissible,  as,  for  example, 
'doing  stunts'  and  'a  licking'  and  'bully.' 
The  slang  of  the  clubs  and  of  university  men  is 
also  quite  consistent  with  good  taste.  But 
when  you  make  a  statement  and  some  one  says 
'  That's  right '  or  '  Sure,'  intending  it  for  an  as- 
sent, or  says  '  I  don't  think '  or  '  Nit,'  intending 
it  for  a  disagreement,  then  you  may  know  that 
you  have  met  a  person  who  is  void  of  the  nicer 
understanding.  I  once  heard  a  very  pretty 
young  lady  in  a  moment  of  vexation  say  '  Hully 
Gee  ! '  Had  she  sworn  a  vigorous  oath  or  two 
it  would  not  have  been  unpardonable  ;  but  what 
she  did  say  seemed  to  me  for  the  moment  to 
transform  her  on  the  spot  from  a  very  charming 
girl  into  a  bedraggled  guttersnipe.  The  trouble 
is   that  when   the  would-be    linguistic    purist 


COLLOQUIAL    USAGE  279 

finally  gets  it  through  his  head  that  slang  is  in 
itself  admissible,  he  cannot  see  that  there  is 
slang  and  slang,  and  he  will,  for  example,  think 
it  jocular  to  speak  of  money  as  '  scads '  and  of 
an  umbrella  as  a  ^bumbershoot.' "  ^ 

§  4.  Colloquial  Usage.  —  "  Colloquial  "  means 
'^conversational,"  and  colloquial  usage  is  the 
conversational  usage  of  fairly  well-educated 
persons.  It  is  sometimes  less  grammatical  than 
strictly  literary  usage,  and  it  freely  employs 
words  in  less  dignified  senses  than  book  usage 
would  require. 

Colloquial  usage  may  be  divided  into  two 
sorts  :  that  which  is  really  preferable  for  con- 
versational purposes  to  the  corresponding  liter- 
ary usage,  and  that  which  is  excusable  in 
conversation,  but  less  desirable  than  the  cor- 
responding literary  usage.  Usually  the  con- 
tractions don't  (except  in  the  third  singular) 
and  can't^  and  sometimes  the  contractions  won't 
and  shan't^  are  preferable  in  conversation  to  the 
longer  forms.  And  of  two  possible  words,  the 
simpler  is  always  the  better  in  conversation. 
We  may  quote  Professor  Peck  again. 

1  Harry  Thurston  Peck:  What  is  Good  English?  and 
Other  Essays. 


280  W0BD8 

"In  private  life  the  unenlightened  person  is 
very  apt  to  dread  colloquialisms.  He  will 
wish  to  speak  book-language  in  recounting 
the  most  casual  incidents  of  life.  He  is 
always  '  perusing '  a  book  instead  of  reading 
it;  he  always  'retires'  and  never  goes  to  bed  ; 
he  '  disrobes '  and  does  not  undress  ;  he  will 
promise  to  '  correspond '  but  not  to  write  ;  he 
will  ask  you  to  'desist'  but  not  to  stop.  If 
he  is  extremely  unenlightened  he  will  say 
that  he  is  'partial'  to  such  and  such  a  thing, 
and  perhaps  at  table  will  offer  to  'assist' 
you  to  the  cheese.  This  sort  of  person  is 
almost  as  low  as  the  one  who  takes  pleasure 
in  alluding  to  his  'social  position'  and  with 
whom  men  and  women  are  always  '  ladies '  and 
'gentlemen.'  .   .   . 

"Allied  somewhat  with  a  prim  preference 
for  the  superficially  elegant  is  that  jocular  use 
of  'literary'  language,  which  is  common  with 
certain  people,  especially  with  women,  and 
most  of  all  perhaps  New  England  women,  with 
whom  literary  allusion  is  something  of  a  fad. 
It  has  been  neatly  caught  by  Henry  James  in 
his  story,  A  New  England  Winter^  where  one  of 
the  characters,  Pauline  Mesh,  speaks  this  sort 
of  Bostonese. 


COLLOQUIAL    USAGE  281 

"  She  was  accustomed  to  express  herself  in  humorous 
superlatives,  in  pictorial  circumlocutions;  and  had  ac- 
quired in  Boston  the  rudiments  of  a  social  dialect,  which, 
to  be  heard  in  perfection,  should  be  heard  on  the  lips  of  a 
native.  Mrs.  Mesh  had  picked  it  up;  but  it  must  be 
confessed  that  she  used  it  without  originality.  It  was  an 
accident  that  on  this  occasion  she  had  not  expressed  her 
wish  for  her  tea  by  saying  that  she  should  like  a  pint  or 
two  of  that  Chinese  fluid. 

"  And  so  Mrs.  Mesh  smilingly  describes  a 
young  friend  of  hers  as  a  '  false  and  faithless 
man,'  and  beseeches  him  not  to  'sully  this  inno- 
cent bower  with  those  fearful  words.'  This 
sort  of  thing,  in  the  end,  tends  to  vulgarize 
language  because  it  leads  to  the  frequent  use 
of  line  and  very  expressive  words  in  a  trivial 
way  —  a  result  which  is  effected  partly  through 
conversation  and  very  largely  through  news- 
paper writing.  There  are  few  vocables,  for 
instance,  more  exquisitely  suited  to  their  mean- 
ings than  '  ghastly,'  '•  weird,'  '  uncanny,'  and 
'fierce,'  yet  when  one  hears  that  somebody's 
dinner-party  was  'a  ghastly  failure,'  or  that  a 
certain  lady's  hat  was  '  weird,'  or  that  the 
failure  of  two  trains  to  connect  was  *  uncanny,' 
or  that  a  young  woman  is  'fierce'  to  go  to  a 
reception,  then  one  feels  regretfully  that  the 
resources  of  our  language  are  being  impover- 


282  WOBDS 

ished  and  its  expressiveness  impaired.  The 
newspapers  make  this  worse,  for  they  harp 
upon  some  naturally  fine  word  or  phrase  until 
it  becomes  ridiculous  and  has  to  be  eliminated 
from  one's  serious  vocabulary."  ^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  speech  of  many  per- 
sons who  pass  for  well  educated  is  marred  by 
colloquialisms  which  are  without  excase,  because 
equally  simple  correct  expressions  are  at  hand. 
Girls  and  boys  in  the  high  school  must  be 
leniently  dealt  with  in  these  matters,  of  course. 
Neither  will  they  lose  sleep  over  fine  distinc- 
tions in  conversational  diction,  nor  is  it  desir- 
able that  they  should.  But  the  following  shows 
how  absurdly  strong  a  hold  some  too  colloquial 
expression  can  get  upon  a  boy  or  girl  : 

Lord  Dutferiii  has  written  a  letter  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Ride- 
in  g,  in  which  he  tells  this  anecdote  :  "  Lady  Dufferin  and 
I  were  paying  Tennyson  a  visit,  accompanied  by  my 
eldest  daughter,  who  was  then  a  slip  of  a  girl  of  about 
fifteen.  Tennyson  read  us  a  poem  he  had  just  written. 
I  think  it  was  '  Tithonus.'  When  it  was  finished  my 
daughter,  in  her  girlish  enthusiasm,  cried  out,  '  Oh,  how 
awfully  pretty ! '  upon  which  Tennyson,  putting  his  hand 
on  her  shoulder,  said,  ^  My  dear  child,  don't  use  that 
dreadful  word !  *     In  a  voice  of  deep  compunction  she 

1  Peck :  What  is  Good  English?  and  Other  Essays, 
pp.  42-44. 


COLLOQUIAL    USAGE  283 

exclaimed,'  Oh,  I'm  awfully  sorry,'  to  the  immense  amuse- 
ment of  the  whole  company." 

If  Lord  Tennyson  shuddered  at  the  misuse 
of  awfully  sorry^  what  would  he  have  said  to 
the  American  vulgarism  awful  sorry!  These 
two  expressions,  by  the  way,  illustrate  well 
the  difference  between  a  colloquialism  and  a 
vulgarism. 

Exercise  74.  (  Oral. )  Each  of  the  following 
sentences  contains  a  colloquial  expression,  avoid- 
able in  conversation,  and  not  to  be  used  in 
writing.  Find  a  strictly  correct  (but  not  bom- 
bastic) literary  expression  for  each  colloquial- 
ism. It  will  often  be  necessary  to  reconstruct 
the  sentence. 

1.  He  aggravates  me  by  his  petty  questions. 

2.  We  were  in  too  far  now  to  hack  out. 

3.  Earl  Li  is  a  hig  man  in  Chinese  politics. 

4.  A  man  ly  the  name  of  Jones  arrived. 

5.  I  asked  father's  permission,  but  he  said  I  couldnH 


go. 


6.  How  you  children  do  caiTy  on  ! 

7.  She  took  on  so  that  we  dared  tell  her  no  more. 

8.  He's  a  perfect  case,  that  boy ! 

9.  The  policeman  fired  him  out. 

10.  This  clock  is  out  of  order  and  must  he  fixed, 

11.  Sally  said  she  was  dll  flustrated  by  the  news. 

12.  My  folks  haven't  come  home  yet. 


284  WOBDS 

13.  It  is  well  to  have  a  pail  of  water  handy,  in  case  of 
fire. 

14.  We  went  to  a  near  by  house. 

15.  I  don't  see  them  any  more  than  I  can  help. 

16.  "  My  comrades,"  said  Ulysses,  "  thrust  the  stake  in 
the  Cyclop's  eye." 

17.  Come  in  the  house  and  we'll  get  a  cup  of  tea. 

18.  Look  at  Jane,  how  she's  Jixed  up  I 

19.  In  hack  of  these  statues  is  a  spire. 

20.  I  am  unwilling  to  have  her  go. 

21.  I  once  had  a  curious  accident  happen  to  me. 

22.  Three  hundred  thousand  workingmen  have  had 
their  wages  voluntarily  increased  since  February  1.  West- 
ern Reserve  Democrat  please  copy. 

23.  Anyway,  "I  shall  still  be  Vicar  of  Bray,"  as  the 
poet  says. 

24.  They  both  have  wooden  shoes  on. 

25.  The  whistle  blew  some  in  the  course  of  the  night. 

26.  The  whistle  blew  twice  during  the  night. 

27.  He  is  a  great  success  as  a  salesman. 

28.  Put  that  board  down  sideways,  not  endways. 

29.  He  has  lots  of  money. 

30.  It  makes  me  mad  to  see  him  abuse  the  animal  so. 

31.  We  were  mighty  glad  to  get  home  —  father,  brother, 
and  myself. 

32.  Well,  you  can  'phone  me,  at  all  events. 

33.  She  puts  on  a  good  many  airs. 

34.  Is  the  dress  pretty?     Well,  quite  pretty. 

35.  There  were  quite  a  few  visitors  to-day. 

36.  There  were  quite  a  lot  of  boys  present. 

37.  Wait  till  Ifx  my  hair. 

38.  Fort  Dearborn  stood  right  there,  where  the  street 
approaches  the  bridge. 

39.  The  coat  sets  well. 

40.  Wait  till  the  principal  comes ;  he'll  settle  him. 


COLLOQUIAL    USAGE  285 

41.  Nothing  about  this  desk  seems  to  stay  put, 

42.  You  may  go  if  you  wish  to. 

43.  It's  quite  a  ivays  to  town. 

44.  I  can't  go  without  I  get  my  work  done.  [Tn  Ger- 
man, ohne,  "  without,"  is  a  conjunction  as  well  as  a  prepo- 
sition, but  the  analogy  does  not  extend  to  the  English 
word.  Most  grammars  class  the  conjunctive  use  of  with- 
out as  a  grammatical  blunder.  The  Standard  Diction- 
ary, however,  recognizes  it,  though  adding  that  it  is  "  in 
disuse  by  careful  writers."] 

45.  "  Do  you  go  bathing  on  this  rocky  shore  ?  "  "Yes, 
some.'' 

46.  Tom,  put  on  your  vest. 

47.  He's  a  stylish  person.  \_Stylish,  as  applied  to  dress, 
is  said  to  be  admissible.] 

48.  Oh,  what  a  cute,  cunning  little  doll ! 

49.  Where  are  you  going  to  f 

50.  John  is  a  strictly  up-to-date  young  fellow. 

51.  I  guess  I  must  be  going.  Several  of  us  and  my- 
self  2iXQ,  going  out  this  evening. 

52.  I  just  love  pickled  limes. 

53.  At  what  hotel  are  you  stopping  f^ 

54.  The  prisoner  weakened  when  confronted  with  the 
witness.  [The  literary  usage  would  not  be  "  the  prisoner 
grew  weak,"  which  would  refer  to  a  physical  condition 
only,  but  "the  prisoner's  courage  weakened,"  or  some 
expression  in  which  lueokened,  a  most  unpleasing  verb 
when  taken  intransitively,  would  not  appear  at  all.] 

55.  We  had  a  nice  time,  though  we  had  to  put  up  with 
some  noise. 

1  The  true  meaning  of  the  word  stop  was  well  understood 
by  the  man  who  did  not  invite  his  professed  friend  to  visit 
him  :  "  If  you  come,  at  any  time,  within  ten  miles  of  my 
house,  just s^op.  Matthews:  Words,  their  Use  aiid Abuse, 
p.  359. 


286  WORDS 

§  5.  Technical  Usage.  —  We  have  already  seen 
that  the  expressions  of  commerce,  especially  in 
a  commercial  nation  like  America,  tend  to 
creep  into  general  conversation,  and  thence  find 
their  way  into  newspapers,  magazines,  and 
books.  There  are  people  who  never  hold, 
maintain,  declare,  assert,  or  say  that  anything 
is  so  ;  they  invariably  claim  that  it  is  so. 

Now,  so  far  as  the  terms  of  a  given  trade,  or 
profession,  or  science,  are  easily  intelligible  to 
all  the  people,  and  are  more  vigorous  or  pictu- 
resque than  commoner  words,  they  are  wel- 
come in  books.  But  the  ground  is  dangerous. 
Mr.  Kipling,  who  has  most  freely  drawn  on 
special  vocabularies  for  literary  purposes,  is 
unintelligible  at  times,  save  to  the  engineer 
or  the  soldier  about  whom  he  writes.  There  is 
an  excuse  for  Mr.  Kipling,  for  he  tries  to  pre- 
sent the  emotions  of  engineers  or  of  soldiers,  and 
so  feels  obliged  to  use  their  own  language  ; 
"McAndrews'  Hymn"  is  a  noble  poem,  even 
though  the  reader  gets  but  a  faint  notion  of  the 
make-up  of  the  engine  which  McAndrews  talks 
about.  But  when  a  theme  is  filled  with  unex- 
plained technical  terms,  there  seems  to  be  no 
excuse.  When  a  student  says,  without  ex- 
plaining his  terms,  that  "  McBride  punted  on 


LITERARY  USAGE  287 

the  first  down,"  he  is  no  more  intelligible  to 
the  ordinary  public  than  a  botanist  would  be 
who  should  remark  at  the  dinner  table  that  he 
had  discovered  a  beautiful  example  of  Woro- 
nin's  hypha,  and  when  asked  to  define  Woro- 
nin's  hypha,  should  reply,  ''  Why,  that's  simple. 
Woronin's  hypha  is  a  swollen,  septate,  curved, 
densely  protoplasmic  hypha  in  certain  ascomy- 
cetous  fungi,  in  the  inner  basal  part  of  a  peri- 
thecium.  It  always  disappears,  you  know, 
after  the  development  of  asci." 

Enough  of  technical  usage  for  the  present. 
Themes  do  not  often  reveal  too  much  of  it, 
and  we  may  leave  the  subject  until  we  come 
to  certain  tasks,  in  Part  Second  of  this 
book,  which  require  the  exposition  of  technical 
topics. 

§  6.  Literary  Usage.  —  Up  to  this  point  we 
have  been  finding  out  what  literary  usage  is 
not.  It  is  not  local,  nor  vulgar,  nor  technical, 
nor  even  colloquial.  Literary  usage  —  more 
commonly  called  good  usage  —  is  the  use  of 
such  constructions,  words,  and  senses  of  words 
as  the  body  of  reputable  writers  sanction  by 
their  own  practice  to-day. 

Note  that  "  the  body  "  of  reputable  writers  is 


288  WOBDS 

specified.  To  be  sure  that  a  word  is  in  good 
use,  the  lexicographer  must  be  able  to  quote  it 
from  many  distinguished  writers. 

"  Reputable  writers  "  is  perhaps  not  an  easy 
term  to  define.  A  writer  who  has  achieved 
distinction  rather  than  passing  notoriety,  and 
whose  work  is  practically  free  from  all  except 
quoted  localisms,  vulgarisms,  technical  and  col- 
loquial terms,  is  certainly  a  reputable  writer, 
though  the  definition  is  chiefly  negative.  There 
is  a  constantly  increasing  number  of  such 
writers,  just  as  there  is,  unfortunately,  an 
increasing  number  of  unreputable  writers.  An 
absolutely  correct  writer  doubtless  never  lived; 
but  such  essayists  as  Landor,  Arnold,  Higgin- 
son,  and  Fiske,  such  novelists  as  Hawthorne 
and  Stevenson,  such  historians  as  Green  and 
Parkoian,  are  in  general  safe  models  in  matters 
of  usage. 

The  definition  implies  that  literary  usage 
must    be    not    merely   national  ^  —  free     from 

^  If  it  is  interiiational,  so  much  the  better,  though  it 
need  not  be  international.  In  the  few  matters  of  usage  in 
which  the  Englishman  and  the  American  differ,  each  does 
well  to  stick  to  the  custom  of  his  own  nation.  There  are 
many  differences  between  British  vulgar  use  and  American 
vulgar  use,  but  very  few  between  British  good  use  and 
American  good  use. 


LITERARY   USAGE  289 

localisms  and  technical  terms  —  and  sound  in 
matters  of  taste  —  free  from  vulgarisms  and 
colloquialisms  —  but  present.  This  means,  first, 
being  free  from  obsolete  words.  There  is  little 
need  of  discussing  this  phase  of  good  usage  at 
length.  No  student  uses  many  obsolete  expres- 
sions, however  ready  he  may  be  to  catch  up 
new  words.  Now  and  then  a  student  affects 
verbs  in  eth  for  humorous  purposes,  but  so  long 
as  he  keeps  them  out  of  themes  there  can  be  no 
quarrel  with  him.  Indeed,  there  are  certain 
words  strictly  obsolete  in  oral  speech  which 
may  be  retained  in  literary  usage  to  the  distinct 
enrichment  of  our  written  language.  Very 
much  of  the  phraseology  of  the  King  James 
version  of  the  Bible  is  of  this  nature.  The 
speeches  and  even  the  letters  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln reveal  the  power  that  still  lives  in  words 
half-obsolete,  if  they  are  such  as  befit  high  and 
serious  thoughts.  Of  this  subject  more  will 
need  to  be  said  later  iii  the  present  chapter. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  from  the  many  warn- 
ings which  have  been  given  as  to  usage  that 
literary  usage  is  a  very  restricted  and  formal 
matter.  English,  as  we  know  it  in  modern 
books,  is  a  rich  and  varied  language,  and  no 
other  tongue  is  so  free  from  petty  restrictions. 


290  WORDS 

When  all  local,  vulgar,  and  colloquial  expres- 
sions are  thrown  out,  there  still  remains  a 
vocabulary  so  immense  that  the  temptation  is 
to  choose  unusual  and  fantastic  words  rather 
than  familiar  and  simple.  In  the  next  section 
one  form  of  this  temptation  is  considered. 

§  7.  Neoterisms.  —  The  more  alive  a  people  is, 
the  more  alive  its  language  ;  only  dead  peo- 
ples have  dead  languages.  Living  words  change 
their  meaning  with  new  circumstances.  The 
English  people  has  been  very  much  alive  in 
recent  centuries,  and  its  language  has  grown 
immensely  by  the  coinage  or  the  importation 
of  new  words.  The  coinage  of  a  w^ord,  or 
the  coined  word  itself,  is  called  a  neoterism. 
Some  of  the  best  established  words  in  the  lan- 
guage are,  comparatively  speaking,  neoterisms. 
In  1589,  such  words  as  the  following  were  con- 
sidered new  coinages :  ^  delineation^  dimension^ 
figurative^  idiom^  impression^  indignity^  method^ 
numerous^  savage^  scientific.  The  word  gas  was 
invented  by  the  Belgian  chemist.  Van  Helmont, 
who  died  in  1644.  Dr.  Johnson  (died  1784) 
would  not  admit  patriotic  into  his  dictionary. 
International   is   the    coinage    of    the    English 

1  Puttenham  :  Art  of  English  Poesie,  1589.  Arber's  Re- 
print.    See  also  Hall :  Modern  English,  p.  109. 


NEOTERISMS  291 

jurist,  Bentham,  who  died  in  1832.  Telegraph 
is  perhaps  a  few  years  younger  than  inter- 
national;  Morse's  experiments  were  completed 
in  1835.  Scientist,  foi^tnightly,  dyspeptic,  vol- 
canic are  all  very  recent  words. 

So  rapid  has  been  the  progress  of  invention 
and  discovery,  and  so  little  have  the  news- 
papers and  the  public  felt  the  responsibility  of 
preserving  the  purity  of  the  language,  that 
every  manner  of  new  coinage  has  been  made. 
Things  have  now  reached  such  a  stage  that  the 
patent  laws  almost  encourage  the  formation  of 
hideously  incorrect  trade-names. 

A  new  word  should  not  be  accepted  unless  it 
meets  three  conditions.  ''  First  of  all,  a  new 
word  ought  to  supply  an  antecedent  blank ;  or 
else,  on  the  score  of  exactness,  perspicuity, 
brevity,  or  euphony,  it  ought  to  be  an  improve- 
ment on  a  word  already  existing.  .  .  .  Sec- 
ondly, a  new  word  should  obey  some  analogy. 
...  In  the  third  place,  a  new  word  should 
be  euphonious."  ^ 

It  has  often  come  to  pass  that  a  word  has 
been  accepted  by  the  body  of  reputable  writers 
though  it  violates  one  or  more  of  these  canons. 
The  second  has  been  disregarded  more  than  the 

1  Fitzedward  Hall:  Modern  English^  pp.  171,  173,  183. 


292  WORDS 

other  two.  When  Dr.  Hall  says  that  a  new 
word  should  obey  "some  analogy,"  he  means 
that  it  should  be  formed  like  some  well-estab- 
lished English  word,  preferably  not  a  hybrid 
or  mongrel  form.  A  hybrid  is  a  word  whose 
parts  are  derived  from  different  languages. 
Dlamondiferous  is  a  hybrid.  It  does  not  really 
follow  the  analogy  of  a  word  like  caj^boriifcr- 
ous^  derived  from  Latin  carbo  and  Latin  fero. 
Diamond  is  an  English  word,  and  should  take 
an  English  suffix.  Diamond-hearing  is  a  cor- 
rect and  easily  understood  compound.  Dlamon- 
diferous has  never  been  accepted  by  the  body 
of  reputable  writers,  though  certain  other  hy- 
brids have  been,  as  talkative^  a  mixture  of 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Latin,  and  interloper^  a  mix- 
ture of  Latin  (through  French)  and  Dutch. 
Our  safest  rule  with  regard  to  neoter- 
isms  is  to  write  none  until  we  find  it  in 
the  works  of  several  reputable  writers.  If, 
in  conversation,  we  need  to  name  some  new 
invention,  we  may,  as  far  as  in  us  lies, 
apply  the  three  canons  of  neoterism  ourselves. 
Our  classical  studies  may  not  have  progressed 
far  enough  to  give  us  a  sense  of  security  in 
applying  the  second,  but  we  can  apply  the  first 
and  the  third.     Which  of  the  following  words, 


NE0TERI8MS  293 

naming  machines  that  reproduce  pictures  from 
life,  seems  to  you  the  best  sounding  ?  Which 
is  the  simplest  ?  Which  seems  to  carry  its 
meaning  most  easily  to  a  high-school  student  ? 

Bidoloscope,  biograph,  bioscope,  verascope,  vitagraph, 
cinematographe,  cinematoscope,  cinetoscope,  cineograph, 
kinematograph,  kinematoscope,  kinetograph,  kinetoscope, 
kineoptiscope,  triograph,  trioscope,  centograph,  zimo- 
graph,  multiscope,  hypnoscope,  vitamotograph,  magni- 
scope,  magiscope,  animatograph,  animatoscope,  kineopti- 
con,  motograph,  mutagraph,  alethoscope,  projectoscope, 
phantographoscope,  polygraph. 

There  is  always  a  list  of  words  which  are 
candidates  for  acceptance  in  literary  usage,  but 
are  not  as  yet  fully  accepted.  The  following 
seem  to  fill  antecedent  blanks,  are  formed  on 
analogy,  and  sound  well  enough,  but  have  not 
as  yet  been  fully  accepted  by  the  best  authors  : 
climatic^  electrieute  (a  better  word  than  the 
hybrid  electrocute}^  onto^  tasteful.  The  word 
standpoint  is  used  by  all  except  the  most  fas- 
tidious, though  it  is  not  formed  by  analogy. 
View-point  is  by  no  means  admitted,  nor  likely 
to  be  admitted.  Standpoint  (German  stand- 
punkt}  carries  the  idea  of  a  point  of  view  that 
is  firmly  or  permanently  taken.  The  word 
burglarize  is  formed  by  analogy,  but  is  hardly 


294  WORDS 

euphonious,  and  hardly  tills  an  antecedent 
blank.  It  does,  indeed,  cover  two  thoughts, 
that  of  breaking  in  and  that  of  robbing  ;  but  a 
simple  English  statement  having  ''  house  "  for 
the  subject  —  ''the  house  was  robbed"  —  seems 
to  carry  both  the  ideas  referred  to.  Burglarize 
is  not  in  literary  usage,  nor  in  the  best  collo- 
quial usage. 

Students  are  themselves  tempted  to  coin  no 
new  words  except  by  the  use  of  suffixes.  The 
suffix  ness  should  not  be  used  too  much.  Say 
humility^  good  nature^  grandeur,  rather  than 
humbleness,  good  naturedness,  grandness.  Some- 
times ness  conveys  a  different  thought  from  the 
corresponding  Latin  suffix.  "  Profaneness " 
differs  how  from  "  profanity  "  ?  Naturalness 
has  no  corresponding  word  with  Latin  suffix. 
The  suffix  al  must  be  used  with  caution.  Pessi- 
mistical,  optimistical,  are  not  used  to-day  for 
pessimistic,  optimistic.  On  the  other  hand, 
careful  writers  prefer  mathematical  to  mathe- 
matic.  What  is  the  meaning  of  politic?  politi- 
cal? economic?  economical? 

§  8.  Tone.  —  Even  when  all  the  words  em- 
ployed are  recognized  by  literary  usage,  the 
tone  of  one  piece  of  writing  will  naturally  be 


TONE  295 

less  formal  than  that  of  another.  Indeed,  the 
tone  of  literature  more  and  more  approaches 
that  of  good  conversation,  for  literature  deals 
more  and  more  with  the  interests  of  everyday 
life.  There  is,  too,  a  natural  reaction  from  the 
formal,  because  in  the  hands  of  commonplace 
writers  formal  style  becomes  dull  and  stiff. 

Now,  a  high-school  student  usually  abomi- 
nates dulness  and  stiffness,  almost  as  much  as 
did  a  certain  magazine  editor  of  whom  a  critic 
said,  "  He  refused  to  print  the  '  Life  of  Christ,' 
which  he  had  asked  an  eminent  writer  to  pre- 
pare ;  he  evidently  thought  it  was  not  '  snappy ' 
enough."  That  high-school  students  should 
avoid  priggishness  and  pedantry  is  certainly  to 
their  credit ;  but  that  some  should  be  unable  to 
write  a  single  serious  page  without  dropping 
back  into  schoolboy  slang  is  unfortunate. 

Exercise  75.  (Oral.)  The  following  sen- 
tences contain  lapses  in  tone.  Point  out  the 
merely  colloquial  lapses  and  the  vulgar  lapses. 
Raise  the  tone  of  all  the  sentences. 

1.  This  first  murder  acts  as  a  starter  for  other  black 
crimes,  and  Macbeth  stops  at  nothing. 

2.  The  murder  is  planned.  Macbeth  wishes  several 
times  to  back  out,  but  his  wife  goads  him  on. 

3.  Milton  did  not  attack  the  wrongs  which  common 


296  WOBBS 

writers  were  persecuting  and  did  not  stop  to  crow  over 
his  victory. 

4.  Macbeth  was  immediately  touched  with  remorse. 
Lady  Macbeth  ridiculed  him  and  scoffed  at  him.  Mac- 
beth, however,  did  not  feel  that  way  long. 

5.  Then  Satan  said,  "I  rue  the  day  when  we  at- 
tempted to  set  ourselves  up  as  equals  to  the  Almighty 
on  the  embattled  plains  of  heaven." 

6.  I  think  Shylock  probably  w^ent  home  [after  the 
trial],  and  felt  like  "kicking  himself." 

7.  Speaking  of  the  Tower  of  London,  large  yards 
and  wall  surround  the  whole  thing. 

8.  He  not  only  had  great  strength,  but  he  was  also 
endowed  with  a  large  amount  of  good  looks. 

9.  Launcelot  shuts  off  his  father  from  talking. 

10.  In  the  banquet  scene  Lady  Macbeth  is  strongly 
contrasted  with  her  husband.  He  is  ready  to  throw  up 
the  sponge,  and  is  saved  from  discovery  only  by  her 
artifices. 

11.  The  colonists  were  not  fighting  for  a  measly  tax, 
but  for  a  principle. 

12.  In  loftiness  of  character  Milton's  Satan  is  far 
superior  to  Dante's  Lucifer.  There  is  nothing  so  very 
elevating  about  Lucifer. 

13.  Lady  Macbeth  seems  at  first  the  blacker  villain  of 
the  two.  The  memory  of  the  murder  does  not,  at  first, 
bother  her  so  much  as  it  does  her  husband. 

14.  The  Puritans  are,  perhaps,  the  most  remarkable 
body  of  men  the  world  ever  turned  out. 

15.  In  answer  to  the  second  question,  it  is  a  toss-up 
which  play  best  fills  the  bill. 

16.  The  style  of  "  L' Allegro  "  is  free  and  easy. 

17.  The  vagueness  of  Milton  and  the  particularity 
of  Dante  come  out  in  their  treatment  of  Satan  and 
Lucifer. 


PRECISION  297 

18.  Belial  is  afraid  that  in  the  long  run  they  will 
suffer  worse  things  than  those  which  are  now  tormenting 
them. 

19.  Charles  did  all  he  could  to  help  Catholicism 
along.  Though  he  was  ready  to  accept  pecuniary  help 
from  his  people,  he  wanted  no  help  in  running  his  parlia- 
ment. 

20.  In  his  shorter  poems  Milton  had  already  attained 
the  top  notch  of  literary  excellence. 

§  9.  Precision.  —  Precision  in  the  choice  of 
words  has  already  been  considered  so  far  as 
the  laws  of  ordinary  good  taste  affect  it.  All 
improprieties,  whether  vulgar  or  not,  are  exam- 
ples of  the  loose  rather  than  of  the  precise  use 
of  words.  But  suppose  that  our  writing  vocab- 
ularies have  been  freed  from  all  vulgar  and 
unduly  colloquial  misuse  of  words ;  still  it 
remains  to  be  sure  that  we  use  accepted  liter- 
ary words  in  their  accepted  sense.  Abbreviate 
is  a  literary  word,  abridge  is  another  ;  but  if 
we  say  ''  the  sermon  was  printed  in  an  abbre- 
viated form,"  or  ''the  word  was  printed  in  an 
abridged  form,"  we  are  using  terms  carelessly. 

Exercise  76.  (^Written  and  Oral.}  In  each 
of  the  following  passages  ^  the  italicized  word^ 
are  correctly  used.    Learn  the  definitions.    After 

1  Many  of  the  illustrative  sentences  in  this  exercise  were 
found  in  the  Standard  Dictionary. 


298  WORDS 

studying  the  examples,  write  sentences  of  your 
own  illustrating  the  correct  use  of  each  word. 
In  reciting,  explain  as  well  as  you  can  the  dif- 
ference in  meaning  between  the  words. 

1.  Ability,  power  to  plan,  dh'ect,  give,  or  do.  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  humbly  said  that  he  had  one  talent,  the 
ability  to  look  steadily  at  a  problem  until  he  saw  through 
it.  —  E.  S.  Phelps.  Capacity,  passive  power.  Education 
cannot  make  capacity,  but  it  controls  the  conditions 
by  which   the   least   or   the  most   can    be   made  of   it. 

—  E.  L.  YOUMANS. 

2.  Accept,  to  take  when  offered.  Accept  the  place  the 
divine  providence  has  found  for  you .  — 'Emerson.  Except, 
to  leave  out  or  exclude.  He  could  discern  clearly  enough 
the  folly  and  meanness  of  all  bigotry  except  his  own. 

—  Macaulay. 

3.  Acceptance,  the  act  of  accepting.  His  acceptance 
of  the  invitation  was  prompt.  Acceptation,  the  sense  in 
which  a  word,  phrase,  etc.,  is  received.  It  is  necessary 
first  to  consider  the  different  acceptations  of  the  word 
knowledge.  — Locke. 

4.  Affect,  to  influence  or  change.  When  we  least 
think  it,  we  may  be  affecting  others  in  their  whole  des- 
tiny. —  C.  Geikie.  Effect,  to  bring  about  or  accomplish. 
The  general  effected  a  junction  of  his  corps  with  that  of 
another  general. 

5.  After,  at  a  subsequent  time ;  or,  following  in  time. 

We  look  before  and  after, 

And  pine  for  what  is  not.  —  Shelley. 

Port  after  stormy  seas, 

Life  after  death,  doth  greatly  please.  —  Spenser. 
Afterward,  in   time  following.     Nevertheless,  afterward 


PRECISION  299 

it  yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness.  —  Hebrews 
xii.  11. 

6.  Allude,  to  refer  incidentally,  indirectly,  or  by  sug- 
gestion. Mention,  to  refer  to  directly,  by  name.  The 
speaker  adverted  to  the  recent  disturbances ;  he  alluded 
to  the  remissness  of  certain  public  officers;  though  he 
mentioned  no  name,  it  was  easy  to  see  to  whom  he 
referred. 

7.  Avocation,  a  minor  occupation  or  calling.  Vocation^ 
a  regular  calling.  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell  is  a  physician  ;  but 
his  vocation  of  medicine  does  not  prevent  him  from 
following  the  avocation  of  letters. 

8.  Beside,  at  or  by  the  side  of.  Besides,  in  addition 
to.  He  sat  heside  his  ruined  house ;  he  had  little  besides 
it  in  the  world. 

9.  Casuality,  the  quality  of  being  casual,  or  accidental. 
The  casuality  of  his  visit  was  only  apparent.  Casualty,  a 
fatal  or  serious  accident  or  disaster.  If  they  can  avoid 
casualties,  they  die  only  of  old  age.  —  Swift. 

10.  Character,  the  combination  of  qualities  distinguish- 
ing any  person  or  class  of  persons ;  especially,  admirable 
and  strongly  marked  qualities  lending  moral  force.  His 
character  was  weak  and  vacillating,  but  his  wife  had 
character  in  the  special  sense  of  that  word ;  her  presence 
in  the  community  was  always  .felt.  Reputation,  the  esti- 
mation in  which  a  person  is  held.  Then  the  soldier, 
.  .  .  seeking  the  bubble  reputation,  e'en  in  the  cannon's 
mouth.  —  Shakspere. 

11.  Council,  an  assembly  of  persons  convened  for  con- 
sultation or  deliberation.  Counsel.  (1)  Mutual  inter- 
change of  opinion  ;  or  opinion  as  the  result  of  consultation. 
(2)  A  lawyer  engaged  to  give  advice,  or  to  act  as  advocate 
in  court.  The  plaintiff's  counsel  held  a  council  with  his 
partners  in  law,  and  finally  gave  him,  as  his  best  counsel, 
the  advice  that  he  should  drop  the  suit;   but,  as  Swift 


300  WORDS 

says,  "  No  man  will  take  counsel,  but  every  man  will  take 
money."  The  plaintiff  refused  to  accept  the  advice, 
unless  the  counsel  could  persuade  the  defendant  to  settle 
the  case  out  of  court  by  paying  a  large  sum. 

12.  Contemptibly,  in  a  manner  deserving  of  contempt. 
He  lived  in  a  contemptibly  penurious  way.  Contemptuously, 
in  a  manner  showing  contempt ;  disdainfully.  The  mag- 
istrate remarked  contemptuously,  "  You  call  yourselves 
'  gents.'  Well,  I  consider  that  a  term  little  better  than 
'  blackguards.' " 

Exercise  77.  (^Written.}  In  each  of  the 
following  sentences  the  italicized  words  are 
correctly  used.  Try  to  construct  a  definition 
for  each  italicized  word,  without  consulting  the 
dictionary.  After  all  the  definitions  are  read 
aloud,  the  fuller  definitions  in  the  dictionary 
should  also  be  read  aloud. 

Continual,  continuous. 

1.  A  continual  dropping  is  a  Biblical  phrase. 

2.  A  continuous  dropping  would  not  be  a  dropping  at 
all.     It  would  be  a  stream. 

Definite,  definitive. 

1.  His  directions  were  definite-,  there  was  no  mistak- 
ing them. 

2.  At  last  a  definitive  edition  of  Boswell's  Johnson  has 
appeared ;  we  can  settle  all  disputes  now  as  to  what  Bos- 
well  really  said  that  Johnson  said. 

3.  Exactly  five  months  before  the  definitive  peace 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  was  signed, 
the  treaty  with  Sweden  was  concluded.  —  Bancroft. 


PRECISION  301 

Degrade^  demean,  debase. 

1.  Being  in  disgrace,  the  captain  was  degraded  from 
his  rank. 

2.  He  demeans  himself  sometimes  Vy^ell,  sometimes 
ill. 

3.  He  debases  [or  degrades"]  himself  by  his  profanity. 
Dock,  loharf. 

The  ship  lay  in  the  dock,  and  we  walked  down  the 
wharf  diwdi  went  aboard. 
Fetch,  bring. 

1.  This  seat  where  you  and  I  are  sitting  needs  a  back, 
my  boy;  plesise  fetch  me  that  spruce  board. 

2.  Yes,  that's  the  board.  You  might  bring  the  hammer 
along. 

Funny,  odd. 

1.  It  is  odd  that  T  haven't  heard  of  this  before. 

2.  It  is  a  funny  sight  to  see  Fido  trying  desperately  to 
catch  his  own  tail. 

Graduate. 

The  college  had  to  graduate  him,  and  therefore  he  was 
graduated  from  college  ;  but  he  was  hardly  a  credit  to  his 
alma  mater. 

Healthy,  healthful,  ivholesome. 

Healthful,  that  is  to  say  wholesome,  food  and  climate 
tend  to  make  a  healthy  man. 

Indexes,  indices. 

1.  The  book  had  two  indexes,  one  of  authors  and  one 
of  subjects. 

2.  The  indices  used  were  ^  and  ^. 
Jewelry,  jewels. 

His  wife  wore  a  great  many  jewels.  Her  enemies  say 
that  he  let  her  do  so  in  order  to  advertise  the  stock  of 
jewelry  at  his  shop. 

Last,  latest,  preceding. 

The  last  page  of  the  novel  is  done,  and  it  will  speedily 


302  WORDS 

be  placed  upon  the  market  as  the  very  latest  story  of 
adventure,  more  thrilling  than  all  the  preceding. 

Less,  fewer. 

There  were  fewer  than  twelve  cans,  and  less  than  a 
gallon  in  each. 

Necessities,  necessaries. 

If  we  are  driven  to  it  by  our  necessities,  we  shall  be 
able  to  find  the  necessaries  of  life,  for  these  are  few. 

Observation,  observance,  remark. 

1.  His  observation  of  the  habits  of  birds  was  keen. 

2.  His  observance  of  the  Sabbath  was  strict. 

3.  Johnson's  observations  of  men  were  keen. 

4.  Johnson's  observations  were  made  with  his  eyes  ;  his 
remarks,  with  his  tongue ;  and  Bos  well,  by  recording  the 
remarks,  recorded  the  observations. 

Pell-mell. 

He  rushed  headlong  down  the  street;  they  all  followed 
2)ell-mell. 

People,  person. 

1.  The  Chinese  are  a  very  old  people,  though  less  pro- 
gressive than  many  younger  peoples. 

2.  The  room  was  full  of  people,  mostly  young  people, 
when  two  elderly  persons  entered. 

Prominent,  predominant. 

There  were  many  prominent  men  in  Lincoln's  cabinet, 
but  the  President  was  always  predominant  among  them. 

Proscribe,  prescribe. 

Society  does  not  prescribe  the  exact  height  of  a  man's 
collar,  but  it  will  proscribe  him  if  the  height  of  his  collar 
is  more  than  six  inches. 

Purpose,  propose. 

1.  One  can't  propose  unless  he  proposes  something  to 
somebody. 

2.  One  can  purpose  to  do  a  thing,  without  proposing  it 
to  any  one. 


PRECISION  303 

Quantity^  number. 

A  number  of  boys  were  present  and  ate  a  quantity  of 
ice-cream  and  a  number  of  large  cakes.  The  quantity  of 
cake  and  ice-cream  that  can  be  consumed  by  a  boy  is 
something  remarkable. 

Replace. 

Replace  the  book  on  the  shelf,  else  you  may  lose  it  and 
have  to  replace  it  with  a  new  copy.  [The  second  use  is 
objected  to  by  purists,^  and  would,  indeed,  deserve  dis- 
paragement if  any  other  one  word  meant  "  to  put  a  sub- 
stitute in  place  of."] 

Speciality,  specialty. 

1.  Dr.  A's  specialty  is  nervous  diseases. 

2.  The  tendency  of  our  times  is  to  develop  in  a  man 
whatever  speciality  he  is  capable  of,  and  to  assign  him 
some  specialty  in  trade  or  profession. 

3.  The  speciality  of  Longfellow's  style  is  its  simplicity. 
Specie,  species. 

1.  He  was  paid  in  specie,  and  went  away  with  heavy 
pockets. 

2.  By  March,  1780,  it  required  forty  dollars  of  paper 
money  to  buy  one  dollar  of  specie. —  Oilman:  American 
People. 

3.  The  Concord  grape  is  a  variety  —  developed  at 
Concord,  Massachusetts  —  of  the  species  labrusca,  or  wild 
northern  fox-grape,  of  the  genus  vitis,  of  the  vine  fam- 
ily (  Vitacece) . 

Unique. 

Two  years  ago  there  was  a  collection  of  the  fossils  of 
Solenhofen  to  be  sold  in  Bavaria — the  best  in  existence, 
containing  many  specimens  unique  for  perfectness,  and 
one,  unique  as  an  example  of  a  species  (a  whole  kingdom 

1  Purist.  A  person  who  is  overparticular  in  maintaining 
the  purity,  or  correctness,  of  a  language. 


304  WORDS 

of   unknown  living  creatures  being  announced  by  that 

fossil). RUSKIN. 

Venal,  venial. 

So  Jones  has  been  convicted  of  taking  bribes !  T  did 
not  suspect  him  of  being  venal.  I  suppose  he  thought 
that  the  public  would  not  be  too  hard  on  him  if  he  was 
found  out.  Too  many  men  in  a  democracy  seem  to  think 
that  venality  is,  after  all,  but  a  venial  sin. 

Exercise  78.  (Oral.}  The  following  sen- 
tences exhibit  wrong  uses  of  common  words. 
Substitute  a  more  precise  expression  wherever 
italics  occur;  or,  if  necessary,  recast  the  sen- 
tence. 

1.   a.    The  surrender  was  soon  accomplished, 
h.   Prince   John   reivarded  the  honors  of   the  tourna- 
ment to  the  Disinherited  Knight. 

c.  The  Kalmucks  were  said  to  be  one  hundred  miles 
distance. 

d.  The  Kalmucks  acquired  great  victories. 

e.  The  Indians  rushed  into  the  fort,  uncontrollable  by 
anyone. 

f.  He  planned  a  scheme  to  accomplish  his  motives  in 
another  way. 

g.  Macbeth  startles  when  he  hears  himself  addressed 
as  "  King  that  shalt  be." 

h.  My  brother  had  fallen  and  had  received  a  sprained 
ankle. 

i.    They  could  not  meet  their  rent  payments. 

j.  The  priest  attributed  the  plague  to  the  refusal  of 
Chryseis.^ 

1  It  will  be  remembered  that  Chryseis  was  the  prize  of 
Achilles,  and  that  he  refused  to  give  her  up. 


PRECISION  305 

k.  He  landed  squarely  on  his  feet,  sustaining  broken 
legs  and  internal  injuries. 

2.  a.   The  whole  of  the  plants  died. 

b.  At  the  eve  of  the  roof  are  two  small  towers. 

c.  The  song  of  this  thrush  is  not  so  unique  as  the 
veery's. 

d.  The  rose  is  on  a  long  stem  which  contains  several 
thorns  and  two  sprays  of  leaves. 

e.  Ohio  is  noted  for  its  rolling  country.  Each  hill 
corresponds  to  the  other  hill. 

/.  From  the  top  of  the  bluff  you  can  get  very  pretty 
sights  of  the  rising  moon. 

g.  Considering  the  general  shape,  cast,  and  outline  of 
the  picture,  I  think  it  ivould  represent  a  horse. 

h.  It  is  a  very  picturesque  cathedral,  with  all  its  col- 
ored windows  and  its  gray  stone,  which  has  small  par- 
ticles that  sparkle  and  make  it  look  very  grand. 

3.  a.  My  ideal  boy  would  be  a  good  rider,  a  good 
swimmer,  and  a  good  athlete. 

b.  The  Americans  have  general  assemblies.  This 
fact  would  naturally  tend  to  increase  the  spirit  of  liberty. 

c.  Our  exports  to  our  colonies  alone  in  1772  amount 
to  about  as  much  as  our  whole  exports  amounted  to  in 
1704. 

d.  The  majority,  almost  the  whole  of  the  colonists,  are 
Englishmen. 

e.  Zebek-Dorchi  won  the  hearts  of  the  people  by  his 
winning  personalities. 

f.  Lincoln  astonished  his  hearers  with  the  logic  of  his 
wisdom. 

g.  Lincoln  astonished  his  hearers  with  the  logic  of  his 
wisdom. 

h.  Lincoln's  awkward  form  and  bearing  seemed  to 
betray  simplicity.     But  he  was  far  from  simple. 

i.  Macaulay   says   that   the   more    civilized   a  peopls 


306  WORDS 

become,  the  more  the  quality  of  their  poetry  de- 
creases. 

j.  Queen  Elizabeth,  who,  as  a  whole,  was  just  to  her 
people,  was  still  held  in  remembrance  by  her  subjects. 

k.  Aimless  as  history  may  seem  to  be  when  viewed 
from  the  level  on  which  it  is  enacted,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  progress  made. 

/.  The  Cavaliers  fought,  not  for  religion,  but  for  other 
and  mostly  lower  motives. 

m.  An  ideal  boy  should  be  able  to  meet  with  all  out- 
door sports.  He  will  be  honest  in  all  matters  that  may 
occur. 

n.  Addison  was  a  gentleman  first  and  a  politician 
after. 

4.   a.  Our  attention  is  aroused  and  held  in  suspension. 

b.  Shakspere  is  a  very  iynaginary  author. 

c.  Milton  has  many  transported  Latin  constructions. 

d.  Both  poems  bring  forth  Gray's  love  of  nature. 

e.  Pope's  essay  shows  that  he  had  made  most  human 
nature  a  study.  His  selection  in  our  text-book  is  very 
satirical. 

/.  Bergman  merely  mentions  a  sentence  or  two  con- 
cerning the  slaughter. 

g.  The  poem  shows  the  author  to  be  not  only  a  great 
but  a  minute  observer  of  nature. 

h.  There  is  force  in  his  words,  for  they  seem  exactly 
suited  to  express  the  thought.     [See  Force,  p.  16.] 

Exercise  79.  (  Oral,^  An  expression  is  said 
to  be  ambiguous  or  equivocal  when  it  is  capable 
of  being  understood  in  more  senses  than  one. 
An  expression  is  said  to  be  vague  when  its 
meaning. is  indistinct,  not  fully  formed.     Cer- 


LOGICAL   CONFORMITY  307 

tain  of  the  words  italicized  in  the  preceding 
exercise  are  ambiguous,  others  are  vague,  and 
still  others  are  unmistakable  in  meaning  but 
unmistakably  wrong  in  application.  Select  the 
instances  of  ambiguity,  and  the  instances  of 
vagueness. 

§  10.  Logical  Conformity. 1  —  The  scrupulous 
writer  avoids  not  merely  those  improprieties 
which  reveal  ignorance,  but  those  subtler  ones 
which  offend  a  nice  sense  of  logic.  He  studies 
the  principle  of  logical  conformity. 

''The  principle,"  says  Professor  Newcomer, 
''  is  wide-reaching.  ...  It  means  that  a  thing 
must  not  be  treated  as  a  quality,  an  act  as  a 
method,  a  result  as  an  act,  etc.  It  means  that 
one  shall  not  construct  definitions  after  this 
fashion  :  '  Manumission  is  to  set  free.'  It  means 
that  one  shall  not  compose  such  sentences  as 
these  :  '  To  write  a  history  of  my  life  would  be 
but  a  list  of  uninteresting  facts,' '  A  bicycle  trip 
through  the  mountains  is  about  the  pleasantest 
way  to  spend  a  vacation ' ;  for  writing  is  not  a 
list^  and  a  trip  is  not  a  way  —  the  one  thing  is 
not  the  other,  and  no  logical  mind  will  affirm 
that  it  is." 

1  The  term  is  Professor  A.  G.  Newcomer's :  Elements  of 
Bhetoric,  p.  215. 


308  WOBDS 

Since  this  book  is  designed  for  the  use  of 
secondary  school  students,  not  for  the  use  of 
college  students,  we  must  not  linger  over  logi- 
cal distinctions  which  only  a  mature  and  well- 
trained  person  can  be  expected  to  make ;  but 
we  have  incidentally  given  some  attention  to 
logical  conformity  in  the  manner  of  framing 
definitions  (Exercise  75),  and  we  may  profit- 
ably examine  a  few  violations  of  the  general 
principle,  such  as  are  constantly  found  in  the 
papers  of  secondary  school  pupils. 

Exercise  80.  (OraZ.)  Point  out  and  cor- 
rect the  lack  of  logical  conformity. 

1.  The  most  picturesque  landscape  I  ever  saw  was  so 
many  years  ago  that  I  have  almost  forgotten  it. 

2.  The  most  beautiful  view  of  the  setting  sun  I  ever 
saw  occurred  last  December. 

3.  The  principal  trait  in  the  American  character  is  a 
fierce  love  of  liberty.  This  trait  is  not  strange  when  we 
study  the  people  more  closely. 

4.  The  Americans  are  descended  from  England,  a 
liberty-loving  country. 

5.  He  was  the  most  venturesome  boy  of  all  his  com- 
rades. 

6.  The  following  incident  is  the  way  he  swindled 
Dr.  Primrose. 

7.  Ursula,  her  assumed  name,  had  now  become  old 
and  decrepit. 

8.  Olivia  was  received  by  her  mother  with  a  cool 
reception  which  was  quickly  dispelled  by  the  vicar. 


IDIOM  309 

9.  Immediately  after  the  deed,  Macbeth  becomes 
timorous;  he  hears  strange  sounds,  and  thinks  every 
voice,  movement,  or  noise  is  someone  come  to  find  him 
out. 

10.  The  part  of  the  Poet's  Corner  that  has  the  most 
thought  in  it  is  the  wall  on  our  right.  Here  we  find 
busts  of  great  English  poets  long  since  dead. 

11.  The  architecture  is  very  skilful  and  beautiful.  It 
is  spiral  shape,  and  seems  to  consist  entirely  of  steeples. 

12.  The  building  will  be  one  of  the  finest  of  any  simi- 
lar structure  in  this  country. 

13.  This  prince  was  one  to  whom  the  term  of  weak- 
ness might  be  applied. 

14.  Pope's  rhyme-scheme  is  a  mass  of  mechanical 
couplets. 

15.  A  summer  cannot  be  spent  more  happily  than  to 
go  camping. 

16.  On  each  side  are  two  figures  represented.  One 
represents  an  angel,  the  other  a  demon. 

§  11.  Idiom.  — An  idiom  is  a  recognized  col- 
loquial or  literary  construction,  often  inexplica- 
ble by  the  laws  of  syntax  or  of  logic,  and  not  to 
be  translated  literally  into  another  language.^ 
The  Dutch  say  ''  Dans  maar  op  "  (Dance  more 
up)  for  "  Get  out."  The  Englishman  asks  after 
your  health  by  saying  "How  are  you?"  The 
German  says,  "How  do  you  find  yourself?" 
The  Italian  asks,  "  How  stands  it  with  you  ? " 

1  Sometimes,  however,  the  same  idiom  occurs  in  two  or 
three  related  languages.  "  Wie  geht  es?"  translates  liter- 
ally into  "  How  goes  it  ?  '* 


310  WORDS 

The  Frenchman  demands,  "  How  do  you  carry 
yourself?" 

Well-established  English  literary  idioms  are 
"had  rather"  for  "would  rather"  ;  "been  to," 
in  "have  been  to  church,"  "have  been  to  see 
the  animals,"  ^  etc.  ;  "  whether  or  no  "  ;  "  bring 
about "  ;  "  go  hard  with  "  ;  "  stick  at  nothing  "  ; 
"come  by"  for  "obtain";  "set  about";  "in 
their  midst"  ;2  "try  and  help";  "all  manner 
of  men  "  ;  ^  "  he  is  the  one  who."  ^ 

In  any  language,  the  use  of  prepositions  is 
largely  idiomatic.  Referring  primarily  to  phy- 
sical relations,  prepositions  are  often  used 
in  speaking  of  what  can  neither  be  seen, 
touched,  nor  tasted  ;  and  here  the  choice  of 
preposition  must  be  settled  by  good  usage,  for 
to  settle  it  by  logic  often  passes  the  bounds  of 
human  wit.  Logic  is,  indeed,  sometimes  use- 
ful, and  when  usage  is  divided  an  appeal  to 
logic  is  desirable.  We  may  say  "  averse  to  " 
or  "  averse  from  "  ;  but  averse  is  Latin  a  (from) 
+  versus  (turned),  and  so  logic  is  in  favor  of 
averse  from.     The    idiomatic   use    of    adverbs 


1  But  not  "  Where  have  you  been  ^oP  " 

2  But  the  Biblical  usage  is  "In  the  midst  of  them." 

3  But  "  every  manner  of  men  "  is  more  grammatical. 
"^  But  "  it  is  he  who  "  is  in  better  taste. 


LDIOM  3ll 

also  is  sometimes  amenable  to  logic.  "  Seldom 
or  never"  has  a  reasonable  meaning;  so  has 
"  seldom  if  ever "  ;  but  "  seldom  or  ever  " 
means  nothing,  and  should  be  relegated  to 
oblivion. 

It  frequently  happens  that  two  similar  prepo- 
sitions (or  two  similar  adverbs)  acquire  very 
different  idiomatic  meanings  without  apparent 
reason.  Such  distinctions  are  valuable,  even 
though  arbitrary.  "  Differ  from  "  means  merely 
"to  hold  a  different  opinion  from,"  while 
"differ  with"  means  "to  have  a  difference 
with,"  and  often  implies  some  unpleasant 
warmth  of  feeling.  This  distinction  is  now 
so  well  recognized  that  one  might  legitimately 
say  to  a  friend,  "  I  wholly  differ  from  you  on 
this  question,  but  I  will  not  differ  with  you." 
Again,  "  differ  from  "  means  "  to  be  different 
from,"  a  sense  not  borne  by  "differ  with." 
We  compare  one  thing  to  another  when  the  two 
things  seem  to  us  alike  ;  but  in  comparing  one 
thing  with  another,  we  may  find  points  of  differ- 
ence as  well  as  points  of  resemblance.  "  A 
man  is  at  fault^'^  says  the  Standard  Dictionary, 
"  when  he  chooses  wrongly  or  makes  a  mistake; 
he  is  in  fault  when  he  has  done  something 
blameworthy."      The    same     authority    says : 


312  WOBDS 

"  The  phrases  ever  so  greats  little^  much^  many^ 
etc.,  meaning  'very'  or  '  exceedingly  ^  great,' 
etc.,  may  be  carefully  discriminated  from  never 
so  greats  little^  etc.,  meaning  'inconceivably  great, 
little,'  etc."  ''Sympathy  for"  means  "com- 
passion for  "  ;  "  sympathy  with  "  means  either 
"compassion  for,"  or  "accord  with." 

Blunders  in  idiom  are  often  made  by  Ameri- 
can students,  sometimes  through  downright 
ignorance  of  books,  sometimes  from  indolent 
habits  of  translation,^  but  oftenest  through 
mixing  two  idioms  which  in  themselves  are 
correct.  A  perversity  of  the  pen  leads  us  to 
say,  not  "  Gurth  could  never  suffer  his  dog  to 
be  mistreated,"  nor,  "  Gurth  could  never  bear 
to  see  his  dog  mistreated,"  but,  "  Gurth  could 
not  suffer  to  see  his  dog  mistreated."  It  is 
like  that  perversity  of  tongue  which  leads  a 
man  to  say,  "  You  may  occupew  my  pie,"  or 
"  Look  here,  fellows,  this  no  longer  ceases  to  be 
funny,"  and  which  led  Shakspere's  Stephano  to 
cry  out,  "  Every  man  shift  for  all  the  rest,  and 
let  no  man  take  care  for  himself." 

1  Query.     Should  not  exceedingly  here  be  extremely  ? 

2  The  subject  of  translation  English  is  not  treated  in  this 
book,  because  the  burden  of  correcting  translations  usually 
falls  to  the  lot  of  the  instructors  in  foreign  language. 


IDIOM  313 

Exercise  81/     {Oral.)     Improve  the  idiom 
by  changing  the  italicized  words. 

1.  I  will  now  call  upon  Mr.  Sumner  to  speak  upon  this 
subject.     [Use  a  simpler  preposition.] 

2.  He  is  not  as  bad  as  he  looks.  [After  not,  idiom 
requires  so  rather  than  asJ] 

3.  The  baby  had  no  sooner  eaten  one  cake  when  she 
began  to  cry  for  another. 

4.  The  English  had  no  more  than  begun  the  march 
to  Fort  Edward  than  they  began  to  notice  large  numbers 
of  Indians  following. 

5.  Gratiana,  in  whom  he  has  confided  some  of  his 
plans,  is  present. 

6.  I  was  afraid  to  shoot  at  the  bear,  in  fear  he  would 
attack  me. 

7.  This  recital  of  wrongs  aroused  much  enmity 
among  the  Kalmucks  for  Russia. 

8.  We  had  a  delightful  trip  last  summer,  as  com- 
pared to  that  of  the  summer  before. 

9.  The  venison  was  such  that  no  king  ever  tasted. 

10.  The  venison  was  such  which  no  king  ever  tasted. 

11.  Milton's  Satan  is  chained  on  the  burning  lake 
because  of  his  disobedience  of  God. 

12.  The  parsonage  is  out  of  all  proportion  with  the 
church. 

13.  In   the  valley   are   two  lakes  connected  to  each 
other. 

14.  This  house  is  enormous,  compared  to  the  old  one. 

15.  To  the  side  of  you  you  can  see  the  level  country. 

16.  By  this  picture,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Paris  stole 
Helen  away. 

17.  Moloch  was  actuated  by  hatred  against  his  con- 
queror. 


314  WORDS 

18.  Some  argue  that  Milton  was  inconsistent  bt/ 
accepting  a  high  position  under  a  dictator. 

19.  There  is  the  same  difference  in  the  characters  of 
Dante's  Lucifer  and  Milton's  Satan  that  there  is  in  all 
the  supernatural  characters  created  by  these  authors. 

20.  It  is  my  duty  to  do  my  utmost  to  prevent  an 
alienation  with  America. 

21.  The  murder  of  an  innocent  person  causes  in 
society  hatred  toiuards  the  murderer. 

22.  The  efficiency  of  this  boy  concerning  all  branches 
of  work  is  remarkable. 

23.  The  commerce  of  the  colonies  is  out  of  propor- 
tion with  the  number  of  people. 

24.  My  intellect  is  inadequate  for  this  important 
matter. 

25.  We  must  consider  again  our  treatment  toward  the 
American  colonies. 

26.  Milton's  power  in  writing  of  the  miraculous  is  in 
excess  to  Dante's. 

27.  Macaulay's  sentences  are  very  jerky  at  some  places. 

28.  Gray  writes  in  the  close  proximity  of  nature. 
[Also,  omit  the.'] 

29.  The  Americans'  great  legal  knowledge,  if  not 
combined  to  a  peaceful  attitude,  would  prove  formidable 
to  England. 

30.  It  is  not  so  much  the  actual  taxing  that  grieves 
the  people,  hut  the  fact  that  they  are  taxed. 

31.  We  must  if  possible  prevent  an  estrangement  with 
the  American  colonies. 

32.  He  is  different  than  the  others. 

33.  The  prince  was  between  two  parties :  those  who 
hated  his  suzerain,  the  Czarina  of  Russia,  and  those  who 
■without  the  protection  of  that  suzerain  would  have  taken 
his  throne  from  him. 

34.  He  revenges  himself  against  his  foe. 


IDIOM  315 

35.  He  wished  to  know  their  thoughts  on  what  course 
they  were  to  take. 

36.  This  picture  shows  the  dress  of  the  people  during 
the  intervening  years  of  1607-1669.  [Change  also  the 
order  of  years  and  intervening.^ 

37.  Freedom  was  in  the  religion  of  the  Puritans. 
[Use  a  fuller  expression  for  in.'] 

38.  The  management  of  a  great  department  store  is 
infinitely  difficult,  as  compared  to  that  of  a  small  shop. 

39.  He  was  very  fond  of  his  daughter  Rebecca,  because 
he  placed  all  his  money  at  her  disposal. 

40.  He  should  be  glad  of  the  privilege  to  do  so. 

41.  Many  of  his  maxims  are  in  use  at  the  present  time. 

42.  An  ideal  boy  has  great  tenacity  to  do  the  right 
things. 

43.  Oubacha  was  powerless  of  stayirig  the  flight. 

44.  Large  buttresses  stand  out,  and  between  each  one 
is  a  window. 

45.  The  doctor  told  him  that  when  he  was  sick  to 
come  to  the  office. 

46.  His  mother  woke  John  and  told  him  his  father 
was  sick  Siwd  for  him  to  go  for  the  doctor. 

47.  About  this  time  the  Whigs  became  more  in  power* 

48.  It  did  not  take  long  before  more  misfortunes  hap- 
pened. 

49.  He  was  greatly  envious  of  the  young  prince. 

50.  The  Puritans  were  learned  only  in  the  Bible ;  the 
Cavaliers  were  more  educated  and  more  finely  polished. 

51.  He  was  the  son  of  the  former  king,  and  was  more 
or  less  popular.     [The  idiom  is  too  vague.] 

52.  There  has  been  more  or  less  conversions  this 
winter.  [The  grammar  is  correct  — "  more  or  less  " 
takes  a  singular  verb ;  but  the  sentence  is  awkward  and 
vague.] 

53.  There  are  three  things  to  do  with  this  spirit  of 


816  WOBDS 

liberty:  first,  to  make  it  harmless  by  removing  the 
causes  of  complaint;  secondly,  to  prosecute  it  as  crimi- 
nal ;  thirdly,  to  submit  to  it  as  necessary. 

54.  Addison,  though  a  man  of  strong  character,  did 
not  pursue  his  Whig  convictions  so  far  as  to  make  himself 
hated  by  the  Tories. 

55.  The  guide's  account  showed  several  remarkable 
discrepancies  from  the  Indians. 

56.  Macaulay  says  that  the  Comus  and  the  Samson 
Agonistes  are  of  a  different  type,  but  have  many  points  in 
common.  [The  idiom  "  of  a  different  type  "  for  "  of  dif- 
ferent types  "  is  sometimes  found  (e.g.  p.  79),  but  is  often 
ambiguous.] 

Exercise  82.  (  Written.}  Revise  thoroughly 
the  wording  of  your  five  themes,  freeing  it 
from  vulgarisms,  colloquialisms,  and  faults  of 
idiom,  and  increasing  the  precision  of  choice. 

§  12.  Repetition.  —  In  our  study  of  sentence- 
structure  we  found  that  repetition  of  words, 
especially  of  prepositions,  is  often  necessary  in 
order  to  secure  clearness,  and  sometimes  advis- 
able for  the  sake  of  emphasis  or  coherence. 
We  must  however  face  the  fact  that  repetition 
is  unpleasing  to  the  ear  and  to  that  inward 
sense  which  requires  variety  in  style. 

Repetition  is  often  necessary  if  only  because 
synonyms  are  often  lacking.  This  is  the 
case    in    technical    treatises.       The   writer   on 


REPETITION  317 

rhetoric  must  employ  such  words  as  "  sentence," 
"  paragraph,"  "  emphasis,"  "  coherence,"  until 
both  he  and  his  reader  are  heartily  sick  of 
them.  In  general,  it  is  doubtless  better  to  be 
tedious  than  to  be  misunderstood  ;  but  when- 
ever it  is  possible  to  avoid  repeating  it  is  well 
to  do  so.  We  may  find  synonyms,  or  we  may 
substitute  pronouns  for  nouns,  or  we  may  recast 
the  sentence  so  as  to  lessen  the  necessary  num- 
ber of  repetitions.  In  the  case  of  verbs,  there  is 
the  temptation  of  substituting  ''  do"  or  ''  done  " 
to  excess.  Never  use  "  do  "  or  ''  done  "  for  a 
repeated  verb  without  considering  whether  the 
verb  itself  would  not,  on  the  whole,  sound 
better. 

Exercise  83.  (^OraL^  In  the  following  vary 
the  overworked  words  as  much  as  possible. 
Permit  repetition  only  when  it  is  necessary  for 
clearness. 

1.  I  almost  missed  the  train,  and  in  the  rush  for  the 
train  I  came  in  collision  with  a  man  who  was  coming 
from  the  direction  of  the  train,  but  I  managed  to  catch 
the  train. 

2.  At  the  shock  of  meeting,  only  one  of  the  party 
parted  unharmed.  .  .  .  No  new  champion  dared  to  try 
his  skill,  and  the  patience  of  the  audience  was  sorely  tried 
by  the  inactivity.  The  knight  then  backed  his  horse 
back  to  the  end  of  the  lists. 


318  WOBDS 

3.  Adobe  mud  is  placed  on  the  boards  which  cover 
the  dugout,  giving  it  a  cone-shaped  top,  which  does  not 
give  it  a  very  showy  appearance. 

4.  The  corridor  and  rooms  of  this  house  are  large 
and  roomy.  There  are  a  great  many  windows  in  the 
house.  This  house  is  the  most  noticeable  house  in  the 
village.     It  stands  a  little  way  away  from  the  church. 

5.  After  we  defeated  them  they  got  mad.  After  a 
while  they  got  up  on  a  barn  and  began  to  throw  stones  at 
us.  We  then  got  the  hose  and  got  them  so  wet  that  they 
gave  up. 

6.  As  you  glance  along  the  river  you  see  many  pic- 
turesque places.  When  you  look  about  halfway  between 
the  place  where  you  are  and  the  cathedral,  you  see  a  large 
place  with  trees  on  it.  In  the  centre  of  this  place  is  a 
great  tree  blown  down  by  the  wind. 

7.  Burke  shows  how  rapidly  the  colonies  have  grown 
and  how  important  their  trade  is.  Having  shown  this  he 
proceeds  to  show  their  character.  Here  he  ably  shows 
how  the  American  spirit  of  liberty  has  come  to  exist. 

8.  She  looks  as  if  she  wanted  to  go  back  to  her  home, 
as  she  looks  sad.  The  castle  where  she  is  held  is  on  a 
lake,  and  there  is  no  wind,  as  the  waters  are  smooth. 

9.  Driving  from  the  hotel  to  the  falls,  you  come  after 
about  a  mile  to  the  first  falls,  where  the  river  falls  about 
a  hundred  feet,  while  farther  on  are  the  second  falls, 
over  twice  as  high  as  Niagara. 

10.  This  picture  is  apt  to  impress  one  as  a  very  old 
picture,  painted  by  a  painter  who  lived  many  years  ago, 
because  of  the  method  of  sowing  and  the  general  appear- 
ance. 

11.  Milton  was  one  of  those  rare  men  —  a  good  man. 

12.  The  man  rides  one  of  the  horses  horseback,  and 
has  the  other  horse  alongside  of  him.  It  seems  as  if 
some  of  the  horses  had  become  frightened  by  something 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULABY         319 

and  raised  a  confusion  in  the  crowd.  I  think  from  the 
looks  of  this  picture  that  this  horse-fair  must  have  been 
a  country  horse-fair,  because  the  surroundings  make  it 
look  as  if  they  were  in  the  country. 

13.  I  think  the  committee  selected  to  select  theme 
topics  for  the  class  to  write  upon,  should  be  careful  not 
to  select  too  many  topics  on  one  subject,  since  the  nature 
of  one  student  differs  from  that  of  another.  I  think  that 
the  few  who  are  not  satisfied  with  the  topics  the  commit- 
tee have  selected,  should  be  required  to  select  and  hand 
in  a  list  of  topics  on  which  they  would  like  to  write. 

14.  There  are  two  distinct  stories  running  through 
The  Merchant  of  Venice ;  the  story  of  the  pound  of  flesh 
and  the  story  of  the  caskets.  These  stories  run  parallel 
to  each  other  through  the  play,  as  far  as  the  third  act, 
where  the  story  of  the  caskets  is  ended  by  the  choice  of 
Bassanio.  But  from  here  a  new  story,  the  story  of  the 
rings,  commences,  and  runs  through  the  rest  of  the  play, 
crossing  the  story  of  the  pound  of  flesh  and  finally  taking 
the  place  of  this  story. 

Exercise  84.  (^Written.^  Revise  the  diction 
of  your  five  tliemes  with  regard  to  the  repetition 
of  words.  Avoid  unnecessary  repetition,  but 
also  avoid  the  excessive  use  of  "  one  "  and  "  do  " 
as  substitutes  for  repeated  nouns  and  verbs. 

§  13.  Acquisition  of  Vocabulary.  — It  is  pos- 
sible to  have  ideas  without  having  words  in 
which  to  express  them.  Miss  Helen  Keller  ^ 
had  plenty  of  ideas  before  anyone  taught  her 

1  See  the  Century  Magazine  for  November,  1896,  for  an 
English  theme  by  Miss  Helen. 


320  WORDS 

the  words  for  them.  The  painter  trains  him- 
self to  express  ideas  in  paint ;  the  sculptor,  in 
stone.  The  inventor  expresses  ideas  in  ma- 
chinery. Because  words,  however,  are  the  com- 
monest means  of  expression,  it  is  desirable  that 
one  should  know  as  many  as  possible.  A  per- 
son who  has  ideas  will  indeed  be  able  to  com- 
municate them  in  some  rough-and-ready  form 
of  speech;  will  use  a  poor  word  if  he  cannot 
think  of  a  good  one,  and  by  hook  or  crook  will 
manage  to  be  understood.  But  an  unread,  un- 
trained man  trying  to  communicate  some  fine 
'  shade  of  thought  is  commonly  a  sorry  sight,  no 
matter  how  clever  his  mind  may  be. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  to  know 
words  without  knowing  what  they  stand  for. 
Some  persons  of  quick  verbal  memory  pick  up 
phrases  readily,  and  utter  them  glibly,  with 
little  sense  of  their  meaning.  Gratiano,  of 
Shakspere's  drama,  "  spoke  an  infinite  deal 
of  nothing,  more  than  any  man  in  Venice." 
Such  persons  as  he  have  given  ground  for  the 
sarcastic  remark  that  language  is  the  art  of 
concealing  tliought.  The  use  of  meaningless 
phrases,  and  the  use  of  words  without  a  care 
to  their  exact  meaning,  is  one  danger  that 
besets  the   student  of  composition.     The   boy 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         321 

who  fluently  remarks  that  he  recently  lost  his 
little  saturnine  (meaning  canine^  i.e.  dog)  ;  the 
lady,  Mrs.  Malaprop,  who  walks  through  Sheri- 
dan's play,  saying,  "You  go  first,  and  we'll 
precede  you  "  ;  the  man,  Launcelot  Gobbo,  who 
enlivens  The  Merchant  of  Venice  with  such 
remarks  as  that  "  his  suit  is  impertinent  to  him- 
self," —  these  people  need  a  book  of  synonyms. 
Unless  a  writer  is  sure  that  he  knows  definitely 
the  meaning  of  the  word  that  his  pen  is  about 
to  trace,  he  would  much  better  stay  his  hand. 

Though  one  mind  may  have  thoughts  but  lack 
their  names,  and  though  another  may  have  the 
names  but  lack  the  notions  for  which  they 
stand,  yet  both  thoughts  and  words  are  indispen- 
sable to  the  writer.  A  general  recipe  for  get- 
ting ideas  is  hardly  easier  to  give  than  a  recipe 
for  being  great,  or  for  having  blue  eyes,  or  for 
being  liked  by  every  one.  Thoughts  are  had 
through  new  experiences,  new  acquaintance- 
ships, new  sights ;  through  hard  thinking, 
through  hard  reading,  —  in  short,  through  liv- 
ing. "  If  it  were  only  for  a  vocabulary,"  says 
Emerson,  "the  scholar  would  be  covetous  of 
action.  Life  is  our  dictionary.  Years  are  well 
spent  in  country  labors  ;  in  town  ;  in  the  insight 
into  trades  and  manufactures ;  in  frank  inter- 


322  WORDS 

course  with  many  men  and  women  ;  in  science ; 
in  art ;  to  the  one  end  of  mastering  in  all  their 
facts  a  language  by  which  to  illustrate  and  em- 
body our  perceptions.  I  learn  immediately 
from  any  speaker  how  much  he  has  already 
lived,  through  the  poverty  or  the  splendor  of 
his  speech.  Life  lies  behind  us  as  the  quarry 
from  whence  we  get  tiles  and  copestones  for  the 
masonry  of  to-day.  This  is  the  way  to  learn 
grammar.  Colleges  and  books  only  copy  the 
language  which  the  field  and  the  work-yard 
made."  Mr.  Henry  James,  the  eminent  novel- 
ist, gives  a  direction  for  being  a  good  novelist  : 
TrT/  to  he  one  of  those  people  on  whom  nothing  is 
lost.  The  student  who  is  eager  to  know  as 
much  as  possible  of  what  is  worth  knowing  in 
life,  and  is  devoured  with  curiosity  to  learn  the 
name  of  everything,  is  sure  to  acquire  both 
new  ideas  and  new  words. 

It  is  nevertheless  not  to  be  denied  that  to 
some  extent  ideas  can  be  bred  by  the  study  of 
the  mere  words.  How  true  this  is  appears 
when  it  is  remembered  that  words  are  the 
embalmed  thoughts  of  men.  A  study  of  such  a 
list  as  the  Curious  Words  given  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter  cannot  but  add  to  the  student's 
mental  stores.     Thackeray,  it  is  said,  used  to 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         323 

read  the  dictionary  before  lie  composed.  It 
may  be  presumed  that  the  habit  used  not 
merely  to  acquaint  him  with  new  words,  but  to 
arouse  his  mind  and  set  it  to  fashioning  new 
thoughts.  The  attempt  to  discriminate  be- 
tween words  that  mean  nearly,  not  quite,  the 
same  thing,  results  in  a  distinct  gain  in  thought, 
and  in  power  of  thought.  It  is  probable  that 
no  two  words  have  exactly  the  same  sense  ;  to 
discover  the  difference  enriches  the  discoverer's 
store  of  knowledge,  and  develops  one  of  the 
highest  mental  powers.  A  command  of  words 
not  merely  affords  relief  from  the  pain  of 
dumbness,  not  merely  loosens  ^he  tongue ;  it 
aids  reasoning.  Thinking  proceeds  more  se- 
curely the  moment  a  hazy  notion  is  given  defi- 
nite shape  in  the  right  word.  Indeed,  the 
mere  search  for  the  right  word  is  always  a 
means  of  clearing  up  the  thought.  To  be 
tortured  in  mind  by  inability  to  find  the  unique 
phrase  sometimes  means  a  mere  fault  in  verbal 
memory  ;  as  often  it  means  vagueness  of  think- 
ing. 

Acquisition  of  ideas  furthers  acquisition  of 
words,  and  vice  versd.  To  be  poor  in  thoughts 
or  to  be  poor  in  language  —  either  means  failure 
for  a  writer. 


324  WORDS 

Of  all  the  200,000  words  in  our  language, 
probably  no  one  man  would  understand  one- 
half  if  he  saw  them,  undefined,  in  a  dictionary. 
Just  how  large  a  man's  reading  vocabulary  can 
be  is  not  known.  Professor  Holden,  the  astron- 
omer, found  that  his  own  was  about  33,000 
words.  It  is  likely  that  26,000  words  is  not 
an  unusual  number  for  an  educated  person  to 
understand.  But  the  reading  or  passive  vocab- 
ulary is  very  different  in  size  from  the  writing 
or  active  vocabulary.  To  remember  the  sense 
of  a  word  when  it  is  seen  is  far  less  difficult 
than  to  recall  the  word  whenever  its  meaning 
rises  dimly  in^  the  mind.  A  little  child  has 
but  one  set  of  words  —  an  active  vocabulary  ; 
it  makes  oral  use  of  all  the  expressions  it 
knows.  But  the  older  person  reads  so  much 
that  he  comes  to  recognize  myriads  of  words 
that  rarely  rise  to  his  lips  or  find  their  way  to 
his  pen.  There  is  inevitably  a  widening  gap 
between  the  expressions  he  can  recognize  and 
those  he  can  employ.  That  this  should  be  so 
is  in  part  desirable.  A  person  of  fourteen  or 
sixteen  or  eighteen  must  learn  to  understand 
many  expressions  that  are  too  bookish  for  his 
own  uses.  The  word  temerarious^  for  instance, 
is  needed  once  where  its  unpretentious  cousin, 


ACQUISITION   OF   VOCABULARY         325 

rash,  is  needed  a  score  of  times.  With  some 
words  the  young  writer  needs  only  a  speaking 
acquaintance  ;  others  are  good  friends  that,  in 
Hamlet's  phrase,  he  should  buckle  to  his  soul 
with  hoops  of  steel.  But  if  a  person  can  trans- 
fer some  part  of  his  reading  vocabulary  into  his 
writing  vocabulary,  he  will  be  much  benefited 
by  so  doing.  There  is  probably  no  reason  why 
a  freshman  should  not  enter  college  master  of 
a  writing  vocabulary  of  5000  words,  and  a 
reading  vocabulary  of  15,000.  Shakspere's 
works  contain  about  15,000  different  words, 
the  King  James  version  of  the  Bible  fewer  than 
6000. 

"  It  would  be  absurd,"  says  Professor  A.  S. 
Hill,  with  characteristic  good  sense,  ''  for  a  boy 
to  have  the  desirableness  of  enlarging  his 
vocabulary  constantly  on  his  mind  ;  but  if  he 
avails  himself  of  his  opportunities,  in  the  school- 
room or  out  of  it,  he  will  be  surprised  to  find 
how  rapidly  his  vocabulary  grows."  Doubtless, 
however,  the  matter  must  receive  some  definite 
attention,  if  the  best  results  are  to  be  secured. 
In  the  rest  of  this  chapter  particular  methods 
of  acquiring  new  words  and  senses  of  words 
will  be  considered. 

It   will   be   found   helpful  to  buy  a  strong 


326  WORDS 

blank-book  of  convenient  size,  and  to  copy  into 
this  every  new  word  that  seems  to  the  student 
available  for  his  writing ;  not  every  new  word 
he  meets,  for  some  will  impress  him  as  too 
bookish,  but  those  which  appear  to  express 
happily  some  idea  that  has  lain  unnamed  in  his 
mind.  Usually  the  best  way  is  to  look  up  the 
meaning  when  the  word  is  come  upon.  When, 
however,  a  tale  or  poem  or  essay  is  being  read 
for  its  general  theme,  or  for  its  literary  con- 
struction, it  is  often  desirable  to  underline  each 
new  word,  leaving  the  meaning  to  be  investi- 
gated a  little  later.  The  book  should  receive 
many  contributions  from  other  sources  than 
literature.  The  conversation  of  educated  per- 
sons, the  discourse  of  the  lecturer,  the  speech 
of  plain  men  who  have  used  words  with  mean- 
ing in  the  real  business  of  life  —  all  these 
should  be  laid  under  contribution. 

A  writer  owes  it  to  himself  and  to  the  reader 
to  get  all  the  service  he  legitimately  can  out  of 
common  words,  because  in  the  end  so  doing 
spares  both  persons  a  vast  deal  of  unnecessary 
labor.^  Examine  a  handful  of  the  well-worn 
counters  of  speech,  —  such  words  as  poor^  heavy^ 

1  The  French  are  particularly  scrupulous  in  this  matter  ; 
no  other  modern  writers  are  so  exact  and  effective  as  the 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         327 

thin,  best,  full,  manner,  sense,  deep,  sweet.     They 

are  like  dull  pebbles  brought   home  from  the 

beach.     But  dip  them  back  into  the  brine  of  a 

good  book,  and  they  become  gems.     The  words 

specified  above  appear  in  a  paragraph  of  Mr. 

W.  D.   Howells  :   "  I  followed  Irving,   too,  in 

later  reading,  but  at  haphazard,  and  with  other 

authors  at  the  same  time.     I  did  my  poor  best 

to  be  amused  by  his  Knickerbocker  History  of 

New  York,  because  my  father  liked  it  so  much, 

but  secretly  I  found  it  heavy ;  and  a  few  years 

ago  when  I  went  carefully  through  it  again,  I 

could  not  laugh.     Even  as  a  boy  I  found  some 

other  things  of   his  up-hill  work.     There  was 

the  beautiful  manner,  but  the  thought  seemed 

thin ;    and   I    do   not   remember   having   been 

much  amused  by    Bracebridge  Hall,   though   I 

read  it  devoutly,  and  with  a  full  sense  that  it 

would  be  very  comme  il  faut  to  like  it.     But  I 

did  like  the  life  of  Goldsmith ;  I  liked  it  a  great 

deal  better  than  the  more  authoritative  life  by 

Forster,  and   I   think   there    is  a   deeper   and 

sweeter  sense  of  Goldsmith  in  it."^ 

French  in  their  use  of  the  simpler  resources  of  language. 
Madame  de  Stael  went  to  the  extreme  of  saying,  "  There  is 
no  surer  sign  of  barrenness  of  thought  than  coining  new 
words." 

1  My  Literary  Passions,  p.  32. 


328  WORDS 

Observe  the  various  duties  that  the  plainest 
words  were  persuaded  into  doing  for  Shak- 
spere.  With  him  the  word  old  applies  to 
widely  different  things  :  old  arms^  old  heard^ 
old  limhs^  old  eyes^  old  hones^  old  feet,  old  hea7% 
old  wrinkles,  old  wit,  old  care,  old  woe,  old  hate, 
old  custom,  old  days.  What  does  each  of  these 
phrases  mean?  He  is  fond  of  contrasting  sim- 
ple words ;  thus,  '-^  He'll  take  his  old  course  in  a 
country  newJ^ 

Note  how  many  abstract  ideas  in  Shakspere 
are  contented  with  the  word  heavy,  which  ordi- 
nary people  apply  merely  to  coal,  lead,  and 
such  uninspiring  commodities :  heavy  accent, 
heavy  news,  heavy  sin,  heavy  act,  heavy  task, 
heavy  day,  heavy  hour,  heavy  gait,  heavy  leave, 
heavy  message,  heavy  summons.  Explain  what 
each  means.^ 

Similarly  there  are  light  gifts,  light  behavior, 
light  heart,  light  loss,  light  of  foot,  light  wings, 
light  foam.  Another  drudge  of  a  word,  thick, 
learns  new  and  pleasanter  tasks  of  the  great 
poet  :  thick  sight,  thick  perils,  thick  in  their 
thoughts,  thick  sighs,  thick  slumber.  Explain 
each  of   these   phrases.     Opposed   to   thick   is 

1  In  case  of  doubt,  consult  Bartlett's  Shakespeare  Con- 
cordance. 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         329 

thin :  thin  air^  thin  drink^  thin  and  slender  pit- 
tance. These  are  the  things  that  Shakspere 
calls  high :  high  deeds,  high  descent,  high  desert, 
high  designs,  high  disgrace,  high  exploits,  high 
feats,  high  good  trim,  high  heaven,  high  hope, 
high  perfection,  high  resolve,  high  reward.  One 
more  word,  golden.  Poets  have  often  applied 
it  to  physical  objects.  Shakspere,  too,  speaks 
of  the  sun  "  Kissing  with  golden  face  the  mead- 
ows green,"  and  of  "  This  majestical  roof  fretted 
with  golden  fire."  But  elsewhere  he  applies 
the  adjective  exquisitely  to  things  that  cannot  so 
directly  be  called  golden.  Thus  :  "  A  golden 
mind  stoops  not  to  shows  of  dross."  "... 
wear  a  golden  sorrow." 

"  Golden  lads  and  girls  all  must, 
As  chimney  sweepers,  come  to  dust.'' 

''Nestor's  golden  words."  Explain  each  of 
these  uses.  Of  course  many  of  these  figura- 
tive expressions  are  too  poetical  by  far  for  the 
prose  of  high  school  students.  Nevertheless, 
many  others  would  be  appropriate  in  the  manu- 
script of  any  person  —  for  instance,  high  de- 
signs, high  deeds,  high  exploits,  high  resolve. 
Such  uses  as  tliese  can  be  cultivated  to  the 
enrichment  of  the  vocabulary. 


330  WOBDS 

Exercise  85.  (^Written.)  Each  of  the  fol- 
lowing adjectives  applies  primarily  to  physical 
objects,  that  can  be  seen,  or  heard,  or  touched, 
or  tasted.  But  each  is  often  raised  to  a  higher 
use,  being  made  to  name  some  quality  of  char- 
acter, or  some  other  abstract  idea.  Take  the 
adjectives  one  by  one,  and  under  each  write  in 
class  as  many  abstract  words  as  you  think 
can  properly  be  modified  by  the  given  adjec- 
tive. Thus  the  adjective  fine^  which  is  used  of 
such  physical  objects  as  sand^  cloth,  particles, 
may  also  apply  to  courage,  sense  of  honor,  pres- 
ence, phrases,  words,  deeds,^ 

1.  Sweet.  2.  Sour.  3.  Bitter.  4.  Soft.  5.  Hard. 
6.  Smooth.  7.  Rough.  8.  Delicious.  9.  Insipid.  10.  Cold. 
11.  Freezing.  12.  Icy.  13.  Burning.  14.  Chilly.  15.  Blue. 
16.  White.  17.  Black.  18.  Gray.  19.  Brown.  20.  Green. 
21.  Dark.  22.  Shadowy.  23.  Misty.  24.  Cloudy. 
25.  Windy.  26.  Stormy.  27.  Transparent.  28.  Blunt. 
29.  Sharp.  30.  Keen.  31.  Dull.  32.  Fragrant.  33.  Malo- 
dorous. 34.  Shining.  35.  Beaming.  36.  Glowing. 
37.  Glittering.  38.  Blazing.  39.  Hazy.  40.  Brilliant. 
41.  Muddy.     42.  Rippling. 

There  is  no  better  means  of  making  the  mem- 
ory yield  up  the  words  which  it  has  formerly 

1  It  may  be  found  desirable  to  assign  only  a  part  of  the 
words  to  each  student,  the  results  to  be  read  before  the 
class  and  discussed. 


ACQUISITION   OF   VOCABULARY         881 

caught,  than  translation.  Professor  A.  S.  Hill 
quotes  the  reported  words  of  Rufus  Choate  : 
"  Translation  should  be  pursued  to  bring  to 
mind  and  to  employ  all  the  words  you  already 
own,  and  to  tax  and  torment  invention  and  dis- 
covery and  the  very  deepest  memory  for  addi- 
tional, rich,  and  admirably  expressive  words."  ^ 
Every  lesson  in  translating  is  a  lesson  in  self- 
expression.  Professor  Carpenter  testifies  ^  that 
the  Latin-trained  boys  entering  scientific  schools 
are  remarkably  superior  in  power  of  expression 
to  those  not  so  trained  ;  and  his  testimony  is 
confirmed  by  the  experience  of  many  other 
teachers. 

To  the  habit  of  learning  by  heart,  many  a 
person  is  indebted  not  merely  for  high  thoughts 
that  cheer  hours  of  solitude,  but  for  command 
of  words.  The  degree  to  which  the  language 
of  modern  writers  is  derived  from  a  few  great 
authors  is  startling.  Shakspere's  phrases  are  a 
part  of  the  tissues  of  every  man's  speech  to-day. 
Such  writers  as  Charles  Lamb  bear  Shakspere's 
mark  on  every  page.  The  language  of  the 
King  James  version  of  the  Bible  is  echoed  in 
modern  English  prose  and  poetry.     It  formed 

'^Foundations  of  Rhetoric^  p.  171. 
2  Advanced  Exercises^  p.  41. 


332  WORDS 

styles  so  unlike  as  those  of  Bunyan,  Ruskiii, 
and  Abraham  Lincoln.  Most  teachers  would 
declare  that  a  habit  of  learning  Scripture  by 
heart  is  of  incalculable  value  to  a  student's 
English.  In  the  Authorized  Version,  and  to 
almost  as  great  an  extent  in  the  Revised  Ver- 
sion, the  Anglo-Saxon  element  and  the  Latin 
are  both  present  in  marvellous  effectiveness.^ 

Exercise  86.  {Oral,}  Whatever  help  one's 
style  is  to  receive  from  learning  by  heart 
will  come  naturally  through  one's  study 
of  literature.  But  so  many  of  the  strongest 
words  in  the  language,  particularly  the  Saxon 
words,  have  been  treasured  up  in  the  homely 
sayings  of  the  people,  that  I  have  ventured  to 
suggest  a  list  of  proverbs  for  learning.  Just 
how  many  of  these  it  may  be  advisable  for  a 
given  pupil  to  retain  in  mind  is  a  matter  to  be 
decided  by  the  instructor.  Certainly  each  stu- 
dent will  do  well  to  learn  a  score  of  those  that 
seem  to  him  best  worth  remembering.  Each 
saying  preserves  some  fine  word  in  some  natural 
context,  a  fact  that  will  make  the  word  far 
easier  to  recall  than  it  would  be  if  acquired  as 

^Eor  particular  passages,  etc.,  see  Professor  A.  S.  Cook's 
The  Bible  and  English  Prose  Style. 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         333 

an  isolated  term.  Not  more  than  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  a  day  ought  to  be  given  to  the  memory 
work. 

ENGLISH    PROVERBS. 1 

A  brave  retreat  is  a  brave  exploit. 
A  carper  can  cavil  at  anything. 
A  carrion  kite  will  never  make  a  good  hawk. 
A  child  is  better  unborn  than  untaught. 
A  custom  more  honored  in  the  breach  than  in    the 
observance. 

A  dogmatical  tone,  a  pragmatical  pate. 

A  diligent  scholar  and  the  master's  paid. 

A  dog's  life,  hunger  and  ease. 

A  dwarf  on  a  giant's  shoulders  sees  farther  of  the  two. 

A  fair  field  and  no  favor. 

A  fault  confessed  is  half  redressed. 

A  fine  new  nothing. 

A  fool  always  comes  short  of  his  reckoning. 

A  fool  will  not  be  foiled. 

A  forced  kindness  deserves  no  thanks. 

A  good  cause  makes  a  stout  heart  and  a  strong  arm. 

A  good  name  keeps  its  lustre  in  the  dark. 

A  grain  of  prudence  is  worth  a  pound  of  craft. 

A  great  city,  a  great  solitude. 

A  honey  tongue,  a  heart  of  gall. 

A  man  may  buy  gold  too  dear. 

A  man  must  sell  his  ware  at  the  rates  of  the  market. 

A  man  never  surfeits  of  too  much  honesty. 

A  nod  for  a  wise  man,  and  a  rod  for  a  fool. 

A  penny  saved  is  a  penny  got. 

1  Hundreds  of  others  will  be  found  in  Hazlitt's  English 
Proverbs. 


334  WORDS 

A  wicked  book  is  the  wickeder  because  it  cannot  repent. 

A  wager  is  a  fool's  argument. 

All  complain  of  want  of  memory,  but  none  of  want  of 
judgment. 

All  the  craft  is  in  the  catching. 

An  unpeaceable  man  hath  no  neighbor. 

Antiquity  is  not  always  a  mark  of  verity. 

As  wily  as  a  fox. 

Better  lose  a  jest  than  a  friend. 

Better  to  go  away  longing  than  loathing. 

By  ignorance  we  mistake,  and  by  mistakes  we  learn. 

Children  are  certain  cares,  but  uncertain  comforts. 

Clowns  are  best  in  their  own  company,  but  gentlemen 
are  best  everywhere. 

Conscience  cannot  be  compelled. 

Cutting  out  well  is  better  than  sewing  up  well. 

Danger  and  delight  grow  on  one  stock. 

Decency  and  decorum  are  not  pride. 

Different  sores  must  have  different  salves. 

Dexterity  comes  by  experience. 

Do  not  spur  a  free  horse. 

Even  reckoning  makes  long  friends. 

Every  age  confutes  old  errors  and  begets  new. 

Every  man  hath  a  fool  in  his  sleeve. 

Faint  praise  is  disparagement. 

Force  without  forecast  is  of  little  avail. 

From  fame  to  infamy  is  a  beaten  road. 

Great  businesses  turn  on  a  little  pin. 

Great  spenders  are  bad  lenders. 

He  is  lifeless  that  is  faultless. 

Heaven  will  make  amends  for  all. 

Let  your  purse  be  your  master. 

Idleness  is  the  greatest  prodigality  in  the  world. 

Ignorance  is  a  voluntary  misfortune. 

It  is  a  wicked  thing  to  make  a  dearth  one's  garner. 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         385 

Lean  liberty  is  better  than  fat  slavery. 

Self-love  is  a  mote  in  every  man's  eye. 

Sloth  is  the  key  to  poverty. 

Some  sport  is  sauce  to  pains. 

Subtility  set  a  trap  and  caught  itself. 

Temporizing  is  sometimes  great  wisdom. 

The  goat  must  browse  where  he  is  tied. 

The  poet,  of  all  sorts  of  artificers,  is  the  fondest  of  his 
works. 

The  prick  of  a  pin  is  enough  to  make  an  empire  insipid. 

The  purest  gold  is  the  most  ductile. 

There's  a  craft  in  daubing. 

Thrift  is  good  revenue. 

Too  much  consulting  confounds. 

Truth  needs  not  many  words,  but  a  false  tale  a  large 
preamble. 

Truths  too  fine-spun  are  subtle  fooleries. 

Upbraiding  turns  a  benefit  into  an  injury. 

Use  your  wit  as  a  buckler,  not  as  a  sword. 

What  God  made,  he  never  mars. 

When  honor  grew  mercenary,  money  grew  honorable. 

Where  vice  is,  vengeance  follows. 

A  synonym  is  a  word  that  means  the  same 
or  nearly  the  same  thing  as  some  other  word. 
Our  language,  from  its  composite  nature,  is 
peculiarly  rich  in  synonyms.  In  hundreds  of 
cases  English  has  absorbed  both  the  Saxon  and 
the  French  or  Latin  word  for  a  given  idea. 
Nearly  always  in  such  cases  one  of  the  words 
has  acquired  a  distinctly  different  shade  of 
meaning  from  the  other.     Indeed,  one  of  the 


336  WORDS 

words  is  sure  to  acquire  a  slightly  different 
value^  from  its  associations  or  from  its  sound. 
While  it  may  roughly  be  said  that  there  are 
words  which  mean  the  same  thing,  yet  for  the 
really  careful  writer  there  are  no  synonyms. 

In  another  sense  there  are  many  people  who 
seem  to  have  no  synonyms.  You  have  doubtless 
known  persons  who  lacked  all  means  of  differ- 
entiating praise  —  persons  who  applied  the  same 
adjective  to  everything,  from  a  pin  to  the  solar 
system.  There  are  the  people  who  find  every- 
thing either  nice  or  not  nice;  the  people  who 
eat  elegant  soups  and  sigh  at  elegant  sunsets  ;  the 
people  who  have  jollg  times^  jolly  canes^  jolly 
excuses.  To  the  nice  group,  the  elegant  group, 
and  the  jolly  group,  may  be  added  the  lovely 
group,  and  many  others. 

Exercise  87.  (Oral.}  Apply  several  adjec- 
tives of  praise  to  each  of  the  following :  soup, 
sunset,  poodle,  lady,  moon,  time  (e.g.  meaning 
an  excursion),  silk,  opera,  book-binding,  gown, 
face,  mountain,  box  of  sweets,  ice-cream,  dis- 
position, story,  manner,  soul,  fan,  perfume, 
roses,  piano-playing,  sermon,  editorial  or 
leader,  critique. 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         337 
GROUPS    OF    SYNONYMS  1 

Below  are  many  groups  of  synonyms.  The 
words  here  chosen  are  such  as  may  properly 
appear  in  the  work  of  any  high  school  student, 
if  there  is  need  of  them  to  express  the  student's 
meaning.  Methods  of  studying  the  list  are 
given  later. 

Abandon,  cast  off,  desert,  forswear,  quit,  renounce, 
withdraw  from. 

Abate,  decrease,  diminish,  mitigate,  moderate. 

Abhor,  abominate,  detest,  dislike,  loathe. 

Abiding,  enduring,  lasting,  permanent,  perpetual. 

Ability,  capability,  capacity,  competency,  efficacy, 
power. 

Abolish,  annul,  eradicate,  exterminate,  obliterate,  root 
out,  wipe  out. 

Abomination,  curse,  evil,  iniquity,  nuisance,  shame. 

Absent,  absent-minded,  absorbed,  abstracted,  obliv- 
ious, preoccupied. 

Absolve,  acquit,  clear. 

Abstemiousness,  abstinence,  frugality,  moderation,  so- 
briety, temperance. 

Absurd,  ill-advised,  ill-considered,  ludicrous,  monstrous, 
paradoxical,  preposterous,  unreasonable,  wild. 

Abundant,  adequate,  ample,  enough,  generous,  lavish, 
plentiful. 

Accomplice,  ally,  colleague,  helper,  partner. 

1  For  reference  :  Fallows,  lOOfiOO  Synonyms  and  An- 
tonyms ;  Roget,  Thesaurus  ;  Fernald,  Synonyms^  Antonyms^ 
and  Prepositions. 


338  WOBBS 

Active,  agile,  alert,  brisk,  bustling,  energetic,  lively, 
supple. 

Actual,  authentic,  genuine,  real. 

Adept,  adroit,  deft,  dexterous,  handy,  skilful. 

Address,  adroitness,  courtesy,  readiness,  tact. 

Adequate,  competent,  equal,  fitted,  suitable. 

Adjacent,  adjoining,  bordering,  near,  neighboring. 

Admire,  adore,  respect,  revere,  venerate. 

Admit,  allow,  concede,  grant,  suffer,  tolerate. 

Admixture,  alloy. 

Adverse,  disinclined,  indisposed,  loath,  reluctant,  slow, 
unwilling. 

Aerial,  airy,  animated,  ethereal,  frolicsome. 

Affectation,  cant,  hypocrisy,  pretence,  sham. 

Affirm,  assert,  avow,  declare,  maintain,  state. 

Aged,  ancient,  antiquated,  antique,  immemorial,  old, 
venerable. 

Air,  bearing,  carriage,  demeanor. 

Akin,  alike,  identical. 

Alert,  on  the  alert,  sleepless,  wary,  watchful. 

Allay,  appease,  calm,  pacify. 

Alliance,  coalition,  compact,  federation,  union,  fusion. 

Allude,  hint,  imply,  insinuate,  intimate,  suggest. 

Allure,  attract,  cajole,  coax,  inveigle,  lure. 

Amateur,  connoisseur,  novice,  tyro. 

Amend,  better,  mend,  reform,  repair. 

Amplify,  develop,  expand,  extend,  unfold,  widen. 

Amusement,  diversion,  entertainment,  pastime. 

Anger,  exasperation,  petulance,  rage,  resentment. 

Animal,  beast,  brute,  living  creature,  living  organism. 

Answer,  rejoinder,  repartee,  reply,  response,  retort. 

Anticipate,  forestall,  preclude,  prevent. 

Apiece,  individually,  severally,  separately. 

Apparent,  clear,  evident,  obvious,  tangible,  unmistak- 
able. 


ACQUISITION   OF  VOCABULARY         339 

Apprehend,  comprehend,  conceive,  perceive,  under- 
stand. 

Arraign,  charge,  cite,  impeach,  indict,  prosecute,  sum- 
mon. 

Arrogance,  haughtiness,  presumption,  pride,  self-com- 
placency, superciliousness,  vanity. 

Artist,  artificer,  artisan,  mechanic,  operative,  workman. 

Artless,  boorish,  clownish,  hoidenish,  rude,  uncouth, 
unsophisticated. 

Assent,  agree,  comply. 

Assurance,  effrontery,  hardihood,  impertinence,  impu- 
dence, incivility,  insolence,  officiousness,  rudeness. 

Atom,  grain,  scrap,  particle,  shred,  whit. 

Atrocious,  barbaric,  barbarous,  brutal,  merciless. 

Attack,  assault,  infringement,  intrusion,  onslaught. 

Attain,  accomplish,  achieve,  arrive  at,  compass,  reach, 
secure. 

Attempt,  endeavor,  essay,  strive,  try,  undertake. 

Attitude,  pose,  position,  posture.    " 

Attribute,  ascribe,  assign,  charge,  impute. 

Axiom,  truism. 

Baffle,  balk,  bar,  check,  embarrass,  foil,  frustrate,  ham- 
per, hinder,  impede,  retard,  thwart. 

Banter,  burlesque,  drollery,  humor,  jest,  raillery,  wit, 
witticism. 

Beg,  plead,  press,  urge. 

Beguile,  divert,  enliven,  entertain,  occupy. 

Bewilderment,  confusion,  distraction,  embarrassment, 
perplexity. 

Bind,  fetter,  oblige,  restrain,  restrict. 

Blaze,  flame,  flare,  flash,  flicker,  glare,  gleam,  gleam- 
ing, glimmer,  glitter,  light,  luster,  shimmer,  sparkle. 

Blessed,  hallowed,  holy,  sacred,  saintly. 

Boasting,  display,  ostentation,  pomp,  pompousness, 
show. 


340  WOBDS 

Brave,  adventurous,  bold,  courageous,  daring,  daunt- 
less, fearless,  gallant,  heroic,  undismayed. 

Bravery,  coolness,  courage,  gallantry,  heroism. 

Brief,  concise,  pithy,  sententious,  terse. 

Bring  over,  convince,  induce,  influence,  persuade,  pre- 
vail upon,  win  over. 

Calamity,  disaster,  misadventure,  mischance,  misfor- 
tune, mishap. 

Candid,  impartial,  open,  straightforward,  transparent, 
unbiassed,  unprejudiced,  unreserved. 

Caprice,  humor,  vagary,  whim. 

Candor,  frankness,  truth,  veracity. 

Caricature,  burlesque,  parody,  travesty. 

Catch,  capture,  clasp,  clutch,  grip,  secure. 

Cause,  consideration,  design,  end,  ground,  motive, 
object,  reason,  purpose. 

Caution,  discretion,  prudence. 

Censure,  criticism,  rebuke,  reproof,  reprimand,  re- 
proach. 

Character,  constitution,  disposition,  reputation,  tem- 
per, temperament. 

Characteristic,  peculiarity,  property,  singularity,  trait. 

Chattering,  garrulous,  loquacious,  talkative. 

Cheer,  comfort,  delight,  ecstasy,  gaiety,  gladness,  grati- 
fication, happiness,  jollity,  satisfaction. 

Churlish,  crusty,  gloomy,  gruif,  ill-natured,  morose, 
sour,  sullen,  surly. 

Class,  circle,  clique,  coterie. 

Cloak,  cover,  gloss  over,  mitigate,  palliate,  screen. 

Cloy,  sate,  satiate,  satisfy,  surfeit. 

Commit,  confide,  consign,  intrust,  relegate. 

Compassion,  forbearance,  lenience,  mercy. 

Compassionate,  gracious,  humane. 

Complete,  consummate,  faultless,  flawless,  perfect. 

Confirm,  corroborate. 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY         341 

Conflicting,  discordant,  discrepant,  incongruous,  mis- 
mated. 

Confused,  discordant,  miscellaneous,  various. 

Conjecture,  guess,  suppose,  surmise. 

Conscious,  aware,  certain. 

Consequence,  issue,  outcome,  outgrowth,  result,  sequel, 
upshot. 

Continual,  continuous,  incessant,  unbroken,  uninter- 
rupted. 

Credible,  conceivable,  likely,  presumable,  probable, 
reasonable. 

Customary,  habitual,  normal,  prevailing,  usual,  wonted. 

Damage,  detriment,  disadvantage,  harm,  hurt,  injury, 
prejudice. 

Dangerous,  formidable,  terrible. 

Defame,  deprecate,  disparage,  slander,  vilify. 

Defile,  infect,  soil,  stain,  sully,  taint,  tarnish. 

Deleterious,  detrimental,  hurtful,  harmful,  mischiev- 
ous, pernicious,  ruinous. 

Delicate,  fine,  minute,  refined,  slender. 

Delightful,  grateful,  gratifying,  refreshing,  satisfy- 
ing. 

Difficult,  laborious,  toilsome,  trying. 

Digress,  diverge,  stray,  swerve,  wander. 

Disavow,  disclaim,  disown,  recall,  renounce,  repudiate, 
retract. 

Dispose,  draw,  incline,  induce,  influence,  move,  prompt, 
stir. 

Earlier,  foregoing,  previous,  preliminary. 

Effeminate,  feminine,  womanish,  womanly. 

Emergency,  extremity,  necessity. 

Empty,  fruitless,  futile,  idle,  trifling,  unavailing,  use- 
less, vain,  visionary. 

Erudition,  knowledge,  profundity,  sagacity,  sense, 
wisdom. 


342  WORDS 

Eternal,  imperishable,  interminable,  perennial,  perpet- 
ual, unfailing. 

Excuse,  pretence,  pretext,  subterfuge. 

Exemption,  immunity,  liberty,  license,  privilege. 

Explicit,  express. 

Faint,  faint-hearted,  faltering,  half-hearted,  irresolute, 
languid,  listless,  purposeless. 

Faithful,  loyal,  stanch,  trustworthy,  trusty. 

Fanciful,  fantastic,  grotesque,  imaginative,  visionary. 

Folly,  imbecility,  senselessness,  stupidity. 

Fling,  gibe,  jeer,  mock,  scoff,  sneer,  taunt. 

Flock,  bevy,  brood,  covey,  drove,  herd,  litter,  pack. 

Fluctuate,  hesitate,  oscillate,  vacillate,  waver. 

Grief,  melancholy,  regret,  sadness,  sorrow. 

Hale,  healthful,  healthy,  salutary,  sound,  vigorous. 

Ignorant,  illiterate,  uninformed,  uninstructed,  unlet- 
tered, untaught. 

Impulsive,  involuntary,  spontaneous,  unbidden,  volun- 
tary, willing. 

Indispensable,  inevitable,  necessary,  requisite,  unavoid- 
able. 

Inquisitive,  inquiring,  intrusive,  meddlesome,  peeping, 
prying. 

Intractable,  perverse,  petulant,  ungovernable,  wayward, 
wilful. 

Irritation,  offence,  pique,  resentment. 

Probably,  presumably. 

Reliable,  trustworthy,  trusty. 

Remnant,  trace,  token,  vestige. 

Requite,  repay,  retaliate,  satisfy. 

Exercise  88.  The  study  of  synonyms  culti- 
vates discrimination.  But  as  a  study  for  the 
purpose  of  widening  the  active  vocabulary  it 


ACQUISITION  OF  VOCABULARY        343 

must  be  judiciously  limited.  If  one  turns  to  a 
book  of  synonyms,  one  finds  on  many  a  page 
some  score  of  words  meaning  nearly  the  same 
thing.  Many  of  these  words  are  unusual,  out- 
of-the-way  expressions,  to  use  which  would 
make  a  man  sound  like  a  prig.  Even  in  the  list 
above  some  words  are  simpler,  and  therefore 
more  desirable,  than  others.  The  class  should 
first  examine  the  entire  list.,  underlining  carefully 
the  simpler  words  in  each  group. 

Exercise  89.  A.  (Oral.}  The  underlining 
finished,  the  groups  may  further  be  studied 
with  a  view  to  discriminating  the  various  terms. 
Fifteen  minutes  a  day  is  enough  to  devote  to 
this  work,  and  in  some  cases  it  may  be  best  to 
examine  minutely  only  a  part  of  the  list,  leav- 
ing the  rest  to  be  used  for  reference. 

Exercise  89.  B^  (Written.)  Each  group 
should  be  taken  up  in  turn  and  discussed  by 
the  class  after  the  meanings  of  unfamiliar  words 
have  been  looked  up  in  the  dictionary.  The 
force  of  each  word  as  a  synonym  of  the  others  in 
its  group  should  be  brought  out  by  written 
illustrative  sentencesc  The  differences  in  mean- 
ing should  be  talked  about  until  they  are 
thoroughly  understood. 


314  JVORDS 

Exercise  90.  (^Oral}  Study  an  assigned 
number  of  groups,  and  pick  out  the  word  which 
seoms  to  have  the  most  general  meaning,  the 
word  which,  more  than  any  other,  includes  the 
remaining  members  of  the  group.  Thus,  in  the 
series  Actual^  authentic^  genuine^  real,  the  last  is 
the  most  general  ternio  Meal  applies  to  a  larger 
number  of  things  than  any  of  its  synonyms. 

Exercise  91.  (^Oral.}  Study  an  assigned 
number  of  groups,  and  say  what  idea  the  mem- 
bers of  each  have  in  common,  and,  if  possible, 
what  additional  idqa  each  member  has.  Thus, 
Adept,  adroit,  deft,  dexterous,  handy,  skilful,  each 
have  the  idea  skilful.  Adept  means  skilful  in 
some  art  or  occupation.  Adroit  means  skilful 
with  the  hand,  or  with  the  mind  —  e,g,  tactful. 
Deft,  dexterous  usually  mean  skilful  with  the 
hand  ;  deft  refers  to  movements  of  the  fingers, 
dexterous  to  quick  motions,  as  of  the  hand. 
Handy  means  skilful  at  manual  exercises. 

Exercise  92.  (Oral.)  One  member  of  each 
group  should  be  pronounced,  and  the  student 
asked  to  give  from  memory  the  other  members. 

Exercise  93.  (Oral,)  Only  one  part  of 
speech    is    represented   in    each   group.       The 


VALUES  345 

student  should  be  asked  to  give  corresponding 
parts  of  speech.  Thus,  the  adjective  series 
Actual,  authentic,  genuine,  real,  yields  the  ad- 
verbs actually,  authentically,  genuinely,  really, 
and  the  nouns  actuality ^  authenticity,  genuine- 
ness, reality. 

Exercise  94.  (^Written.}  Revise  the  dic- 
tion 1  of  your  five  themes  with  a  view  to  im- 
proving the  range  and  choice  of  synonyms. 

§14.  Values. — Every  word  has  a  primary 
stylistic  value,  given  it  by  the  context  in  which 
it  is  used,  and  a  secondary  stylistic  value, 
derived  from  the  previous  associations  it  has 
borne  as  a  word  for  the  reader.  Very  often 
the  primary  value  is  so  strong  that  the  slight 
secondary  value  is  forgotten  or  annulled.  Take 
the  word  gone  ;  its  intrinsic  associations  are  not 
strong  ;  all  depends  on  the  context.  "  Supper 
is  ready;  the  party  has  gone  down,"  is  a  sen- 
tence in  which  gone  has  no  particular  force  ; 
but  "  The  ship  has  gone  down  !  "  gives  gone  a 
tremendous  significance.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  secondary  meaning  of  a  word  like  beast  is 
very  strong. 

1  Diction  —  the  choice  of  words  as  governed  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  art. 


346  WORDS 

Now,  a  knowledge  of  all  the  secondary  mean- 
ings in  the  world  will  not  make  a  man  a 
powerful  writer  unless  clear  thought  or  vivid 
emotion  is  present  to  marshal  his  words.  But 
—  to  change  the  figure — a  writer  must  know 
the  exact  value  of  each  tool.  If  two  expres- 
sions apparently  mean  the  same  thing  — father 
and  male  parent,  for  example  —  he  must  under- 
stand when  it  is  best  to  use  the  one  expression, 
when  the  other. 

Suppose  it  were  desired  to  make  clear  to  a 
friend  how  a  sunset  looked  —  a  difficult  task. 
One  would  hardly  succeed  if  one  had  no  better 
words  to  offer  than  the  general  terms  clouds, 
beautiful,  lovely,  bright.  The  friend,  if  he  cared 
to  know,  would  insist  on  specific  words  :  What 
kind  of  beauty  ?  was  it  quiet  beauty,  or  awful 
beauty,  or  picturesque  beauty?  What  kind  of 
brightness?  was  it  redness?  If  so,  was  the 
sky  blood- red,  or  merely  pink  ?  What  kind  of 
clouds  ?  —  great  masses  of  storm  cloud,  or  high 
frozen  clouds,  or  mottled  "•  mackerel "  clouds? 
To  be  clear,  then,  words  must  be  specific 
enough  to  give  the  idea  intended.  Just  how 
specific  they  should  be  depends  on  the  audience. 
They  must  be  familiar  to  the  hearer  or  reader, 
if  they  are  to  be  understood  without  explana- 


VALUES  347 

tion.  All  audiences  would  understand  the 
general  term  tool;  all  would  understand  the 
genus  name  saw^  which  specifies  a  kind  of  tool. 
But  many  would  not  understand  the  species 
name  rip-saw^  for  to  most  people  rip-saw  is  a 
technical  term.  In  choosing  specific  words  a 
line  should  be  drawn  between  common  terms 
and  technical  terms,  the  latter  not  to  be  em- 
ployed without  explanation,  except  in  address- 
ing special  audiences. 

Specific  words  are  forcible  as  well  as  clear. 
Feelings  are  roused  by  the  thought  of  a  partic- 
ular object,  not  of  a  class  name.  Flower  is  a 
class  name  ;  it  does  not  move  one.  Clover  is  a 
specific  name ;  it  calls  back  the  old  farm,  the 
old  friends,  the  old  joys  and  sorrows.  No 
word  will  really  interest  ttie  reader  unless  he 
has  previously  used  it  or  heard  it  in  association 
with  his  feelings.  The  word  contusion  means 
something  forcible  to  a  doctor,  but  not  to  a  boy, 
for  the  latter  never  used  it.  But  say  bruise  — 
which  means  exactly  the  same  thing.  That  is 
forcible  to  the  boy.  It  feelingly  reminds  him 
of  emotional  experiences. 

Pick  out  from  these  words  those  that  are  in 
themselves  forcible  to  all :  paternal  solicitude, 
fatherly    care ;  home,    domicile  ;  altruism,    un- 


348  WORDS 

selfishness.  You  see  at  once  that  certain  of 
these  words  get  their  force  from  the  long 
associations  of  childhood.  In  childhood  we 
use  the  simpler  words  of  the  language,  those 
that  are  derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  mother- 
tongue.  Anglo-Saxon  words  are  usually  forci- 
ble.    Compare  p.  255. 

Skilful  writers  study  the  secondary  meaning 
of  specific  words  intently.  Tennyson  would 
try  over  and  over  again  for  the  one  adjective  or 
adverb  that  should  bear  exactly  the  suggestion 
he  wished.  A  great  prose  writer  like  Lincoln  — 
great  in  certain  very  high  qualities,  though  not 
in  quantity  or  variety  of  writing  - —  has  a  pro- 
found instinct  of  the  degree  of  force  each  com- 
mon word  bears  to  the  common  reader.  Some 
women  are  so  delicately  constituted  that  partic- 
ular words  not  naming  color  or  odor  still  suggest 
to  them  particular  colors  or  odors.  That  seems 
strange,  but  when  we  stop  to  think  how  full  the 
world  is  of  symbols  for  our  feelings,  and  how 
closely  our  feelings  are  woven  about  the  objects 
of  nature,  it  is  not  beyond  belief.  One  smiles 
when  a  woman  says,  as  a  woman  recently 
did  say,  in  The  Book  Buyer,  that  the  names 
of  certain  plants  invariably  suggest  certain 
authors  to  her ;  yet  it  is  easy  to  see  what  she 


VALUES  349 

means  in  declaring  that  "  gentian  "  and  "  moss 
rose  "  remind  her  of  Hawthorne,  "  edelweiss  " 
and  "  celery  "  of  Emerson,  ''smilax  "  and  "  frost 
flower "  of  Brj^ant. 

We  found  that  most  specific  words  are  of 
Anglo-Saxon  origin.  Most  general  words  are 
of  Latin  origin.  Both  these  statements  are 
only  roughly  true,  of  course  ;  but  the  distinc- 
tion is  worth  making.  The  language  of  science 
is  mostly  of  Latin  origin,  because  it  consists  so 
largely  of  class  names.  Our  Anglo-Saxon  fore- 
fathers had  fewer  such  terms,  for  they  had  not 
progressed  far  enough  to  care  to  classify  every- 
thing. When,  later,  the  English  came  to  study 
history  and  philosophy  and  science,  they  had 
either  to  invent  new  Anglo-Saxon  words  for 
class  names  or  else  use  Latin  words.  They 
chose  the  latter  course.  Consequently  we  have 
such  class  names  as  animal^  and  such  individ- 
ual names  as  cat^  dog^  horse^  pig.  We  speak  of 
white^  hlue^  green^  red;  but  when  we  want  a 
generic  term  for  these,  we  use  color^  a  Latin 
word. 

Any  great  number  of  general  words  gives  a 
scientific,  abstract  tone  to  writing.  General 
words  are  absolutely  necessary  for  the  exact 
purposes  of  science  and  philosophy.     They  are 


360  WORDS 

adapted,  as  Professor  Carpenter  puts  it,  to 
"  precise  and  elaborate  distinctions  of  thought." 
They  do  not  give  a  clear  mental  image ;  that 
is,  yOc*  cannot  see  beauty,  or  smallness,  or  ani- 
mal, or  Gi^lor  —  you  can  see  only  a  beautiful 
object,  a  small  object,  a  particular  animal, 
a  particular  color.  But,  still,  general  words 
mean  exactly  what  they  say.  Animal  means 
exactly  this  :  a  summing  up  of  all  the  quali- 
ties that  are  common  to  all  individual  animals. 
All  the  things  called  animal  have  in  common 
powers  of  sensation  and  voluntary  movement. 
When  such  a  distinction  is  wanted,  it  is  much 
wanted.  There  is  no  better  mark  of  literary 
mastery  than  knowing  just  when  to  use  a  gen- 
eral word,  just  when  a  specific  one.  Examine 
a  few  pages  from  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  to 
see  with  what  exquisite  fitness  words  of  Latin 
origin  may  be  used  in  the  midst  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  words  when  the  appeal  turns  from  the 
feelings  to  the  intellect. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  a  writer  may 
not  wish  to  be  too  specific.  People  are  not  to 
be  blamed  for  referring  vaguely  to  death  as  a 
passing  away^  for  the  specific  word  is  harsh  at 
best.  Such  expressions  as  pass  away  are  called 
euphemisms.     Many  euphemisms  are  legitimate; 


VALUES  351 

but  whether  a  given  one  should  be  employed  is 
a  question  of  taste,  a  question  of  beauty.  It 
seems  a  beautiful  expression  when  Keats  says, 
"to  cease  upon  the  midnight  with  no  pain," 
instead  of,  "  to  die  painlessly  at  twel\e  o'clock; " 
but  it  is  bad  taste  to  insist  on  saying  rose  for 
got  up^  retire  for  go  to  bed,  lower  limbs  for  legs, 
(See  p.  280.) 

Again,  one  should  not  always  hesitate  to  set 
down  an  idea  because  one  has  not  the  sharpest, 
clearest  possible  notion  of  it.  Vague  ideas  are 
sometimes  valuable  ones.  If  they  seem  to  defy 
definite  form,  they  certainly  should  not  be 
thrown  away  merely  for  that.  Catching  one's 
exact  idea  is  often  as  difficult  as  catching  a 
trout.  But  a  glimpse  of  the  fine  fish  that  gets 
away  is  worth  something  —  there  are  few  of  us 
who  can  resist  the  temptation  to  tell  about  it 
when  we  get  home.  Speaking  of  the  mind, 
Emerson  says,  "  It  is  wholesome  to  angle  in 
those  profound  pools,  though  one  be  rewarded 
with  nothing  more  than  the  leap  of  a  fish  that 
flashes  his  freckled  side  in  the  sun  and  as  sud- 
denly absconds  in  the  dark  and  dreamy  waters 
again."  1      In    Wordsworth's   poem.    The  Soli- 

1  Quoted  in  a  different  connection  by  E.  E.  Hale,  Jr., 
Constructive  Bhetoric,  p.  288  ^(^Holt). 


352  WORDS 

tar 2/  Reaper^  we  hear  of  a  song  about  old^ 
unhappy  ^far-off  things.  That  was  exactly  Words- 
worth's own  vague  notion,  and  down  he  set  it 

—  in  words  that  make  it  clear  (so  to  speak) 
that  his  idea  was  sweet  and  vague.  Ruskin, 
describing  the  fagade  of  St.  Mark's  in  Venice, 
tries  to  give  a  sense  of  the  bewildering  multi- 
plicity of  beautiful  things  on  that  wonderful 
front  by  saying,  a  confusion  of  delight.  If  he 
had  used  more  definite  words  we  should  have 
missed  the  effect. 

Exercise  95.  {Oral,}  In  the  following 
passage,  choose  the  better  expression  from  each 
pair  of  brackets.  Each  pair  contains  one  gen- 
eral and  one  specific  term ;  choose  the  term 
which  gives  greater  force  or  greater  clearness 
than  the  other. 

And  therefore,  first  of  all,  I  tell  you  earnestly  and 
authoritatively  (I  know  I  am  right  in  this)  you  must  get 
into  the  [way,  habit]  of  looking  [rightly,  intensely]  at 
words,  and  [telling,  assuring]  yourself  of  their  meaning, 
syllable  by  syllable  —  nay,  letter  by  letter.  For  .  .  .  you 
might  read  all  the  books  in  [a  great  library,  the  British 
Museum]  (if  you  could  live  long  enough)  and  remain  an 
utterly  ^'  illiterate,"  uneducated  person ;  but  if  you  read 
[some  part,  ten  pages]  of  [a  good,  an  instructive]  book, 
letter  by  letter  —  that  is  to  say,  with  real  [care,  accuracy] 

—  you  are  forevermore  in  some  [way,  measure]  an  edu- 


VALUES  363 

cated  [being,  person].  The  entire  difference  between 
education  and  non-education  (as  regards  the  merely  [men- 
tal, intellectual]  part  of  it)  consists  in  this  [exactitude, 
accuracy].  A  well-educated  gentleman  may  not  [read, 
know]  many  languages,  may  not  be  able  to  speak  any 
but  his  own,  may  have  read  very  few  books.  But  what- 
ever language  he  knows,  he  knows  [well,  precisely]  ; 
whatever  word  he  [says,  pronounces]  he  [says,  pro- 
nounces] rightly.  Above  all,  he  is  learned  in  the  peer- 
age of  words,  knows  the  words  of  [true,  veritable]  descent, 
and  [old,  ancient]  blood,  at  a  glance,  from  the  words  of 
[new,  modern]  canaille,  remembers  all  their  ancestry, 
their  intermarriages,  distant  relationships,  and  the  extent 
to  which  they  were  admitted,  and  offices  they  held,  among 
the  national  noblesse  of  words  at  any  time  and  in  any 
[place,  country].  But  an  uneducated  person  may  know, 
by  [heart,  memory],  many  languages,  and  [use,  talk] 
them  all,  and  yet  truly  [know,  apprehend]  not  a  word 
of  any  —  not  a  word  even  of  his  ov/n.  An  ordinarily 
[clever,  good]  and  sensible  seaman  will  be  able  to  make 
his  way  ashore  at  most  [ports,  places],  yet  he  lias  only  to 
speak  [a  little,  a  sentence]  of  [Spanish  or  French,  any 
language]  to  be  [known,  recognized]  for  an  illiterate 
person ;  so  also  the  accent,  or  turn  of  expression  of  a 
single  sentence,  will  at  once  mark  a  scholar.  And  this 
is  so  [well,  strongly]  felt,  so  [conclusively,  well]  admitted, 
by  educated  persons,  that  a  false  accent  or  a  [bad,  mis- 
taken] syllable  is  enough  in  the  parliament  of  any  civil- 
ized nation,  to  [assign,  send]  a  man  to  a  certain  degree 
of  [lower,  inferior]  standing  forever. 

Exercise  96.  (OraZ.)  Which  words  in  the 
following  are  general,  which  specific?  Does 
each  seem  appropriate  in  its  place,  or  ought 

2  a 


354  WORDS 

some  words  to  have  been  more  specific,  others 
more  general? 

1.  Her  dress  was  dark  and  rich ;  she  had  pearls  round 
her  neck,  and  an  old  rococo  fan  in  her  hand.  —  IIenry 
James. 

2.  When  gratitude  has  become  a  matter  of  reason- 
ing, there  are  many  ways  of  escaping  from  its  bonds. 
—  George  Eliot. 

3.  Friendships  begin  with  liking  or  gratitude  —  roots 
that  can  be  pulled  up.  —  George  Eliot. 

4.  What  scene  was  ever  commonplace  in  the  descend- 
ing sunlight,  when  color  has  awakened  from  its  noonday 
sleep,  and  the  long  shadows  awe  us  like  a  disclosed  pres- 
ence ?  Above  all,  what  scene  is  commonplace  to  the  eye 
that  is  filled  with  serene  gladness,  and  brightens  all 
things  with  its  own  joy?  —  George  Eliot. 

One  more  principle  of  values  requires  atten- 
tion. It  is  clear  that  the  full  value,  the  full 
suggestive  power  of  simple  words  is  quite 
lost  to  the  writer  who  fears  to  use  them. 
Several  years  ago  a  gentleman  ^  secured  from 
a  large  number  of  successful  authors  brief 
pieces  of  advice  to  young  writers.  Nearly- 
all  agreed  that  a  young  writer  should  try  to 
express  himself  simply.  It  was  noticeable  that 
even  writers  whose  own  work  is  not  charac- 
terized by  simplicity  seemed  to  admire  this 
quality. 

1  Mr.  George  Bainton  :  The  Art  of  Authorship. 


VALUES  355 

The  greatest  men  are  simple.  Affectation, 
straining  for  effect,  is  a  mark  of  a  little  mind. 
The  greatest  art  is  simple  —  governed  by  a 
noble  restraint.  Over  decoration,  whether  in 
a  picture,  a  piece  of  music,  in  dress,  in  the 
furnishing  of  a  room,  or  in  a  theme,  is  always 
a  mark  of  bad  taste. 

What  is  called  fine  writing  —  the  use  of  over- 
ambitious  words  to  express  simple  thoughts  — 
grows  up  in  various  ways.  Sometimes  it  springs 
from  a  desire  to  be  funny.  Exaggeration  has 
always  been  a  favorite  device  of  the  humorist  — 
especially  of  the  American  humorist.  There 
are  students  who  learn  to  use  this  kind  of  humor 
so  well  that  an  unconscious  habit  of  bombast 
pursues  them  into  their  more  serious  work. 
Most  of  us  can  force  a  smile  at  such  writing  as 
the  passage  given  below,  or  even  laugh  at  it 
when  there  are  enough  people  present  to  help 
us: 

"  It  was  in  the  sixth  thptt  Captain  Anson, 
aided  and  abetted  by  sundry  young  men  gener- 
ally called  '  Colts,'  waded  in  to  snatch  laurel, 
trailing  arbutus,  and  other  vegetables  from  the 
coy  hand  of  fame.  He  did  it,  too,  and  he  now 
has  laurels  to  throw  to  the  birds.  Ryan  went 
first  to  the  bat,  and  pasted  a  warm  one  through 


356  WORDS 

short  that   turned   the   grass   black   along   its 
path." 

But  when  a  young  fellow  has  read  so  much 
of  this  sort  of  diction  that  he  drags  it  into 
his  themes,  the  fun  becomes  vulgarity.  Your 
really  keen  humorist  despises  pretence.  Charles 
Reade  and  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  were  two 
men  who  delighted  in  ridiculing  pretentious 
writing.  Dr.  Reade  draws  up  this  table  of 
terrible  comparison : 

triplet's  facts. 

A  farthing  dip  is  on  the  table. 
It  wants  snuffing. 

He  jumped  up,  and  snuffed  it  with  his  fingers.  Burned 
his  fingers,  and  swore  a  little. 

triplet's  fiction 

A  solitary  candle  cast  its  pale  gleams  around. 

Its  elongated  wick  betrayed  an  owner  steeped  in  ob- 
livion. 

He  rose  languidly,  and  trimmed  it  with  an  instrument 
that  he  had  by  his  side  for  that  purpose,  and  muttered  a 
silent  ejaculation.  —  Reade:  Peg  Woffington. 

Dr.  Holmes,  himself  a  man  whose  fluency 
was  wont  to  lead  him  far  afield  at  times,  turns 
around  and  looks  at  himself  sarcastically  on 
one  of  these  occasions : 


VALUES  357 

A  man  that  knows  men,  in  the  street,  at  then-  work, 
human  nature  in  its  shirt-sleeves,  —  who  makes  bar- 
gains with  deacons,  instead  of  talking  over  texts  with 
them,  —  a  man  who  has  found  out  that  there  are  plenty 
of  praying  rogues  and  swearing  saints  in  the  world, — 
above  all,  who  has  found  out,  by  living  into  the  pith  and 
core  of  life,  that  all  of  the  Deity  which  can  be  folded  up 
between  the  sheets  of  any  human  book  is  to  the  Deity  of 
the  firmament,  of  the  strata,  of  the  hot  aortic  flood  of 
throbbing  human  life,  of  this  infinite,  instantaneous  con- 
sciousness in  which  the  soul's  being  consists, — an  incan- 
descent point  in  the  filament  connecting  the  negative 
pole  of  a  past  eternity  with  the  positive  pole  of  an  eter- 
nity that  is  to  come,  —  that  all  of  the  Deity  which  any 
human  book  can  hold  is  to  this  larger  Deity  of  the  work- 
ing battery  of  the  universe  only  as  the  films  in  a  book  of 
gold-leaf  are  to  the  broad  seams  and  curdled  lumps  of 

ore  that  lie  in  unsunned  mines  and  virgin  placers. 

Oh!  —  I  was  saying  that  a  man  w^ho  lives  out-of-doors, 
among  live  people,  gets  some  things  into  his  head  he 
might  not  find  in  the  index  of  his  Borjy  of  Divinity. — 
Holmes  :   The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Shakspere,  the 
most  fluent  and  varied  writer  whom  our  lan- 
guage boasts,  is  also  the  greatest  master  of  its 
simple  words. ^  The  great  writers  are  all  alike 
in  this  matter  of  honoring  the  simple  word. 
Note  the  force  of  "  little  "  in  Emerson's  famous 
sentence  : 

^'  A  foolish  consistency  is  the  hobgoblin  of  little  minds, 
adored  by  little  statesmen  and  philosophers  and  divines." 
1  See  pp.  328-329. 


358  WOBDS 

Note  the  vigor  of  the  everyday  words  in  a 
profound  remark  of  the  French  writer  Joubert. 
"Education,"  he  says,  "should  be  tender  and 
severe,  not  cold  and  soft."  But  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  multiply  examples.  A  very  short  rule 
will  suffice  :  Use  the  simplest  word  that  will 
express  your  meaning.  Obedience  to  this  rule 
will  one  day  bring  you  a  sense  of  artistic  power. 

Exercise  97.  (^Written,')  Write  the  simple 
English  equivalents  of  the  following  high-flown 
sentences. 

1.  I  was  perambulating  about,  enjoying  the  beauties 
of  nature  on  that  fateful  morning. 

2.  In  chooshig  composition  subjects,  a  student  should 
limit  himself  to  those  fields  of  information  with  which  his 
acquaintance  is  most  extensive. 

3.  In  all  my  experience  I  have  never  enjoyed  the 
acquaintance  of  two  youths  of  more  superior  ability. 

4.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  disassociate  from  my 
mind  the  conception  that  such  a  course  would  be  dis- 
astrous to  the  ambitions  of  the  team. 

5.  Public  sentiment  would  not  permit  an  individual 
or  an  infinitesimally  small  minority  to  clog  the  wheels  of 
progress  in  order  to  prevent  the  escape  of  a  few  dollars 
from  the  individuals  composing  the  obstructive  element. 

6.  Let  us  indeed  refrain  from  any  course  of  action 
which  will  militate  against  the  onward  march  of  the 
civilizing  power  of  the  public  schools  of  this  great  and 
growing  nation. 

7.  While  the  birds  are  carolling  their  sweetest  strains 


IMAGEBY  AND   TROPES  359 

and  the  grass  hung  heavy  with  water-pearls,  Peter  Brant 
was  taking  his  life.  A  more  seductive  place  to  die  in 
than  the  little  garden  back  of  7000  Congress  Street  is 
inconceivable. 

8.  And  why  should  not  the  Queen  of  the  West  par- 
ticipate in  the  music  of  the  spheres,  when  she  herself 
stands  on  the  overtopping  pinnacle  of  this  mundane  atom 
of  the  universe,  from  which  she  sends  her  musical  mes- 
sengers athwart  the  land?  Her  people  feel  the  dint  of 
music,  and  when  such  a  jubilee  of  the  art  is  on  they  feel 
a  mounting  pride  as  w^ell,  despite  the  humanity  of  their 
motives  in  giving  art  in  its  simplicity  an  impetus.  So 
the  city  is  stirred  from  minaret  to  moat,  and  the  heritage 
of  divinity  they  know  is  theirs.  [A  defence  of  the 
Cincinnati  Musical  Festival.] 

Exercise  98.  (^Written,)  Revise  the  dic- 
tion of  your  themes  in  the  light  of  §  14. 

§  15.  Imagery  and  Tropes.  —  Every  specific 
word  gives  a  mental  image,  either  of  sight,  or 
sound,  or  touch,  or  taste,  or  odor.  For  the 
scientist  or  philosopher  distinct  mental  imag- 
ery often  hinders  rapidity  of  thinking  —  par- 
ticularly that  sort  of  thinking  in  which  the 
speculator  is  thinking  more  of  his  conclusions 
than  of  his  data.  As  already  pointed  out 
(p.  346),  general  words  do  not  convey  very 
distinct  images  ;  they  are  symbolic,  represent- 
ing notions  and  classes  rather  than  images. 
Hence  science  and  philosophy  employ  general 


360  woBps 

words  extensively.  A  scientific  statement  like 
''  gravitation  is  a  force  which  varies  directly  as 
the  product  of  the  masses  of  the  bodies  un- 
der consideration,  and  inversely  as  the  square 
of  the  distance,"  certainly  conveys  no  distinct 
image,  if  it  is  thoroughly  understood  as  a  scien- 
tific principle.  But  literature,  having  an  eye 
to  clearness  of  imagery  as  well  as  to  clearness 
of  generalization,  and  having  besides  a  regard 
for  force  and  for  beauty,  would  reject  such  a 
sentence  unless  another  could  be  added  making 
the  matter  clear  in  terms  of  apples  and  moons 
or  other  visible  objects. 

The  value  of  words  which  will  convey  clear 
or  forcible  or  beautiful  imagery  is  so  great  that 
the  demand  has  always  exceeded  the  supply. 
This  is  true  even  to-day,  when  the  vocabulary 
of  English  is  immense.  The  demand  has 
always  led  to  the  use  of  specific  words  in  senses 
different  from  their  literal  meaning,  merely 
because  the  specific  v^^ord  suggested  among 
other  images  one  that  was  particularly  wanted. 
When  the  Indian  calls  his  round-faced  friend 
moon-face,  he  does  so  because  he  has  not  as 
yet  the  word  round,  and  he  feels  that  moon 
contains  an  image  which  applies  to  the  face  in 
question.     He  has  used  figurative  language. 


IMAGERY  AND   TROPES  361 

When,  on  seeing  biscuits  for  the  first  time,  a 
child  refers  to  them  as  moons^  he  is  not  mak- 
ing an  effort  to  adorn  his  language.  He  is 
unconsciously  using  a  figure  of  speech  because 
he  does  not  know  the  literal,  proper,  conven- 
tional name,  biscuit.  If  the  child  had  formerly 
lived  in  a  country  where  apples  grew,  but 
potatoes  did  not,  the  first  time  he  saw  a  potato 
he  would  probably  call  it  a  ground  apple.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  there  are  people  that  have  gone 
through  some  such  experience  with  potatoes. 
The  French  word  pomme  de  terre  indicates  this. 

Most  words  were  once  figures  of  speech,  that 
is,  tropes,  A  trope,  from  the  Greek  word 
Tpeirco^  to  turn,  is  merely  the  turning  away  of  a 
word  from  its  ordinary  meaning  to  give  a  name 
to  some  new  idea.  The  root  of  many  a  word 
shows  the  figure  that  was  used  to  express  a 
given  new  idea.  The  root  spir-  means  to 
breathe.  Since  ceasing  to  breathe  is  one 
part  of  the  process  of  death,  the  expression  to 
breathe  out  became  a  figurative  expression  for 
the  whole  idea  of  '•'-to  die."  In  expire^  applied 
to  death,  the  idea  of  breathe  is  usually  not  felt. 
The  figure  is  forgotten,  and  we  therefore  call 
it  a  root-figure,  or  radical  figure.  As  may  be 
seen  from  the  roots  of  the  Curious  Words  on 


362  WORDS 

page  264,  language  is  figurative  through  and 
through . 

This  is  true  not  only  of  language  already 
made,  but  of  that  which  is  daily  making.  In 
every  mind  shades  of  thought  are  constantly 
occurring  for  which  there  are  either  no  names, 
or  none  which  the  mind  can  learn  in  the 
interval  before  expression  is  necessary.  If 
the  exact  word  is  not  at  hand,  a  comparison 
must  be  made.  The  shade  of  thought  must  be 
named  by  telling  what  thing  in  the  reader's 
experience  it  is  like. 

Does  the  attempt  at  comparison  result  in  a 
vague,  inexact  phrase,  or  in  an  exact  one  ?  The 
youth  who  declares  that  his  lesson  is  as  "  hard 
as  thunder,"  has  expressed  himself  but  vaguely. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  young  lady  who  de- 
clares that  it  rained  "like  anything."  Let  us 
examine  briefly  the  chief  kinds  of  tropes,  and 
note  w^hether  they  are  necessarily  less  clear  and 
exact  than  literal  statements. 

A  person  sees  an  accident,  and  reports  that 
"  a  score  of  hands  "  picked  up  the  injured  boy. 
Here  is  synecdoche.  The  ''  hands "  stand  for 
the  persons  —  a  part  for  the  whole;  a  "score" 
probably  stands  for  a  dozen  —  the  whole  num- 
ber of  hands  in  the  group  of  people,  for  the 


IMAGERY  AND   TROPES  363 

smaller  number  that  actually  touched  the  boy. 
Or,  the  ''score"  may  be  called  hyperbole^  that 
is,  exaggeration.  1  A  critic  might  say  that 
either  figure  is  inexact  here.  True,  in  a  way. 
But  if  the  writer  had  reported  that  he  seemed  to 
see  a  score  of  hands,  the  phrase  would  be  faith- 
ful to  his  thought.  We  may  take  the  seemed 
for  granted,  and  reply  to  the  critic  that  for 
exact  purposes  in  a  law  court,  "  seemed  to  see 
a  score  of  hands "  might  be  nearer  the  truth 
than  an  attempt  at  greater  precision. 

Suppose,  now,  that  the  writer  who  reported 
the  accident  said  that  the  boy  was  in  great 
pain,  so  that  his  face  was  ''as  white  as  ivory." 
Here  is  a  simile  —  an  explicit  statement  of  like- 
ness in  two  things  which  are  different  in  most 
respects.  This  particular  simile  is  certainly 
more  exact  than  the  literal  word  white  would 
be. 

If,  now,  the  writer  had  said,  "  I  caught  a 
glimpse  of  compressed  lips  and  ivory  face,"  the 
comparison  would  have  been,  not  explicit,  but 
implied.  An  implied  comparison  is  called 
metaphor.     Metaphor   is   from   the    Greek    for 

1  Hyperbole,  though  a  "  figure  of  language,"  is  not  usually 
a  trope,  for  tropes  are  founded  on  resemblance.  Irony  and 
exclamation  are  also  figures  of  language. 


364  WORDS 

carrying  over^  because  it  carries  over  bodily  the 
name  of  one  thing  to  another.  To  speak  of  a 
man  as  "  bold  as  a  lion,"  is  simile  ;  to  call  him 
a  "  lion  "  outright,  is  metaphor.  It  is  less  clear 
to  call  a  mau  a  lion  than  to  say  in  what  respect 
he  is  like  a  lion  ;  it  is  less  clear  to  say,  ''  ivory 
face  "  than  to  say  "  face  white  as  ivory." 

The  case  of  the  boy  who  was  injured  may 
have  got  into  the  newspapers.  To  speak  more 
figuratively,  the  press  may  have  taken  up  the 
matter.  Press  stands  here  for  the  editors  of 
the  various  journals.  This  last  figure  is  me- 
tonymy. In  metonymy  one  thing  is  put  for 
another  that  is  often  associated  with  it.  In 
the  sentence  given,  metonymy  does  not  seem 
to  detract  from  clearness  ;  at  all  events  it  saves 
a  roundabout  expression.  Metaphor  and  me- 
tonymy, by  ascribing  life  to  inanimate  things, 
often  become  personification.  So  above,  where 
the  press  takes  up  a  matter.  It  is  evident  that 
personification  need  not  make  a  sentence  less 
intelligible. 

Once  more,  let  us  suppose  that  the  reporter 
who  first  learned  of  the  boy's  accident  remarked, 
on  handing  in  his  account  of  it,  ''  The  early  bird 
catches  the  worm."  The  remark  is  pure  alle- 
gory—  describing  some  act  or  thing  indirectly 


IMAGERY  AND    TROPES  365 

by  describing  something  else.  If  the  hearer 
knows  enough  of  the  situation  to  understand 
the  allegory,  he  undoubtedly  receives  a  forcible 
impression,  and  may  be  helped  to  a  clearer 
view.  Allegory  is  a  kind  of  expanded  meta- 
phor. It  is  more  liable  to  misinterpretation 
than  most  figures  ;  but  the  allegorical  proverbs 
of  our  language,  and  the  popularity  of  such 
books  as  the  Pilgrim's  Progress^  show  that  it  is 
a  favorite  form  of  expression.  Like  general 
words,  allegory  can  be  used  to  say  things  which 
policy  may  forbid  a  writer  to  say  more  directly. 

From  the  discussion  it  appears  that  tropes 
can  often  be  made  to  yield  a  clear  and  suffi- 
ciently exact  phrase.  Often,  however,  a  trope 
lends  force  or  beauty  rather  than  clearness.  It 
is  forcible  rather  than  clear  to  call  a  man  a 
lion.  It  is  beautiful  rather  than  clear  to  speak 
of  the  Pleiades  as  ''  a  swarm  of  fireflies  tangled 
in  a  silver  braid."  Such  a  phrase  as  this  is 
legitimate  enough  in  poetry ;  it  would  be  legit- 
imate in  highly  imaginative  prose.  But  the 
fact  cannot  be  dodged  that  it  would  be  out  of 
place  in  the  midst  of  plain  prose  description. 

The  practical  conclusion  is  obvious.  Use 
tropes  without  hesitation  when  they  are  really 
needed  to  give  clearness  or  force.     Rarely  use 


366  WORDS 

a  trope  for  decorative  purposes  only.  The 
ability  to  write  plain,  bare  English  is  abso- 
lutely indispensable.  The  ability  to  write  fig- 
uratively is  an  enviable,  but  not  a  necessary, 
possession. 

When  the  need  of  a  figure  is  actually  felt,  the 
choice  should  be  made  with  scrupulous  care.  If 
tropes  occur  to  you  in  numbers,  ''  like  flocks  of 
pigeons,"  choose  only  the  pigeon  that  can  carry 
a  message.  To  secure  lucidity,  employ  a  figure 
which  makes  use  of  something  already  clear  to 
the  reader.  Everyday  life  and  common  things 
are  the  best  sources  for  both  similes  and  meta- 
phors. To  secure  force,  select  such  figures  as 
appeal  to  the  emotional  experiences  of  every- 
body. If  you  wish  to  hold  attention  and  move 
your  reader,  appeal  to  such  primal  feelings  as 
love,  hate,  fear,  courage,  joy,  sorrow,  aspira- 
tion, hope.  Note  how  Shakspere  appeals  to  the 
human  animal's  dread  of  deep  w^ater  :  he  makes 
Cardinal  Wolsey  say,  "  I  have  ventured,  like 
wanton  boys  that  swim  on  bladders,  this  many 
summers  in  a  sea  of  glory."  In  Macbeth  he 
appeals  to  the  joy  of  release  from  pain  :  he  calls 
sleep  the  halm  of  each  day's  hurt. 

A  good  figure  of  speech  must  be  consistent. 
Although  a  lively  imagination  changes  its  met- 


IMAGERY  AND   TROPES  367 

aphors  from  minute  to  minute,  it  must  not 
change  them  so  fast  as  to  suggest  ridiculous 
things.  If  the  metaphor  gets  mixed,  clearness 
and  force  go  to  the  winds.  The' other  day  the 
writer  heard  a  young  man  earnestly  exclaim, 
"  Now  I  shall  have  to  toe  the  beeline  !  "  The 
thought  of  that  youth,  lifted  to  a  perilous  posi- 
tion where  his  toes  sought  vainly  in  the  track- 
less air  for  a  "beeline,"  was  quite  too  much 
for  the  gravity  of  his  hearers.  This  trope  that 
failed  to  be  a  trope  Avas  about  as  effective  as 
the  famous  lightning-change  series  of  meta- 
phors uttered  by  Sir  Boyle  Roche :  "  Mr. 
Speaker,  I  smell  a  rat.  I  see  him  floating  in 
the  air.  But  1  will  nip  him  in  the  bud." 
Mixed  metaphor  may  arise  from  mere  liveli- 
ness of  imagination  —  a  good  fault  sometimes. 
More  frequently  it  arises  from  vague  thinking 
or  from  grandiloquence.  A  figure  that  is  not 
in  good  taste  is  incomparably  worse  than  no 
figure  at  all. 

ExEKCiSE  99.  (Oral.)  Name  each  trope, 
ajid  try  to  explain  how  each  gets  its  force  ; 
what  emotion  each  chiefly  touches  —  whether 
merely  the  sense  of  beauty,  or  some  stronger 
emotion  like  fear,   love,    hope.     In   many   in- 


368  W0BD8 

stances  a  complex  emotion  will  be  aroused,  and 
it  is  hardly  worth  while  here  to  attempt  the 
task  of  naming  all  the  dements  of  it.  In  some 
cases  you  will  probably  be  unable  to  decide 
whether  true  simile  or  merely  "literal  com- 
parison" is  used;  but  this  need  not  trouble 
you. 

1.  Thy  soul  was  like  a  stai*  and  dwelt  apart.  — Words- 
worth :  Sonnet  on  Milton. 

2.  What  is  hope? —  a  smiling  rainbow  children  follow 
through  the  wet.  —  Carlyle. 

3.  She  speaks  poniards,  and  every  word  stabs. — 
Shakspere. 

4.  Prayer  is  the  key  of  the  morning  and  the  bolt  of 
the  night.  —  Beecher. 

5.  A  faint  line  of  blue  smoke  sagged  from  the  dying 
coals  of  the  forge  toward  the  door,  creeping  across  the 
anvil  bright  as  if  tipped  with  silver.  —  Allen  :  llie 
Choir  Invisible. 

6.  Between  these  streams  of  whiteness  ran  upward 
long  fingers  of  dark  forest.  —  Bolles  :  At  the  North  of 
Bearcamp  Water. 

7.  Here  and  there  spruces,  standing  in  the  clouds 
upon  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  looked  like  the  dim 
forms  of  men  guarding  the  heights.^  —  Ibid. 

8.  Of  course  I  drank  from  the  brook,  sweeping  away 
the  encumbering  leaves  from  the  top  of  the  fall  to  get 
the  water  just  where  it  rushed  most  swiftly.  Not  to 
drink  from  a  New  Hampshire  brook  is  almost  as  much 
of  a  slight  as  not  to  bow  to  a  friend,  or  not  to  kiss  a 
little   child  when  she  lifts  her  face  for  the  good-night 

1  What  hackneyed  expression  does  Mr.  Bolles  avoid  ? 


IMAGERY  AND   TROPES  869 

caress  which  she  thinks  all  the  world  is  ready  and  worthy 
to  give  to  little  children. — Ibid. 

9.  Whilst  I  am  raininating  comes  a  great  battling  at 
the  street  door,  and  Jack  Comyn  blew  in  like  a  gust  of 
wind,  rating  me  soundly  for  being  a  lout  and  a  block- 
head. —  Churchill  :  Richard  Carvel. 

10.  Use  only  gold  and  silver  coin  in  the  commerce  of 
speech.  —  Joubert. 

11.  The  moon  was  shining  through  the  shattered 
door,  and  the  bodies  and  legs  of  men  went  to  and  fro, 
like  branches  in  a  tempest.  —  Blackmore  :  Slain  by  the 
Doones. 

12.  The  advances  were  made  in  quick,  desperate 
rushes  —  sometimes  the  ground  gained  was  no  more  than 
a  man  covers  in  sliding  for  a  base.  —  R.  H.  Davis  :  The 
Cuban  and  Porto  Rican  Campaigns. 

13.  A  main  fact  in  the  history  of  manners  is  the  won- 
derful expressiveness  of  the  human  body.  If  it  were 
made  of  glass,  or  of  air,  and  the  thoughts  were  written 
on  steel  tablets  within,  it  could  not  publish  more  truly 
its  meaning  than  now.     Wise  men  read  very  sharply  all 

'  your  private  history  in  your  look 'and  gait  and  behavior. 
The  whole  economy  of  nature  is  bent  on  expression. 
The  telltale  body  is  all  tongues.  Men  are  like  Geneva 
watches  with  crystal  faces  which  expose  the  whole  move- 
ment. They  carry  the  liquor  of  life  flowing  up  and 
down  in  these  beautiful  bottles,  and  announcing  to  the 
curious  how  it  is  with  them.  —  Emerson:  Behavior. 

14.  Dr.  Bushnell  once  said  to  a  young  man  who  was 
consulting  him  on  this  point,  "  Grasp  the  handle  of  your 
being,"  —  a  most  significant  and  profound  piece  of  ad- 
vice. There  is  in  every  one  a  taste  or  fitness  that  is  as  a 
handle  or  lever  to  the  faculties;  if  one  gets  hold  of  it,  he 
can  work  the  entire  machinery  of  his  being  to  the  best 
advantage.     Before  committing  one's  self  to  a  pursuit, 

2  B 


370  WORDS 

one  should  make  a  very  thorough  exploration  of  himself, 
and  get  down  to  the  core  of  his  being.  The  fabric  of 
one^s  lite  should  rest  upon  the  central  and  abiding  quali- 
ties of  one's  nature, — else  it  will  not  stand.  Hence  a 
choice  should  be  based  on  what  is  within  rather  than  be 
drawn  from  without.  Choose  your  employment  because 
you  like  it,  and  not  because  it  has  some  external  prom- 
ise. The  "good  opening"  is  in  the  man,  —  not  in  cir- 
cumstances.—  T.  T.  MuNGER  :  On  the  Threshold. 

Exercise  100.  {Written.}  Restore  force  to 
the  following  figures  by  changing  whatever  is 
incongruous  in  them.  Reject  any  that  are 
irretrievably  bad  in  taste,  or  hackneyed. 

1.  The  singing  was  led  by  the  organ  consorted  by 
four  violins. 

2.  In  graceful  and  figurative  language  he  pointed  the 
finger  of  scorn  at  the  defendant. 

3.  It  was  8  o'clock  when  the  guests  attacked  the  f ol- . 
lowing  menu. 

4.  The  trailer  struck  the  car  amidships. 

5.  The  colonies  were  not  yet  ripe  to  bid  adieu  to  Brit- 
ish connection. 

6.  Let  us  cast  off  the  shackles  of  doubt  and  bind  our- 
selves with  the  bonds  of  faith. 

7.  No  human  happiness  is  so  serene  as  not  to  contain 
some  alloy. 

8.  Boyle  was  the  father  of  chemistry,  and  brother  of 
the  Earl  of  Cork. 

9.  The  marble-hearted  marauder  might  seize  the 
throne  of  civil  authority,  and  hurl  into  thraldom  the 
votaries  of  rational  liberty. 


IMAGERY  AND   TROPES  371 

10.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  now  that  lovely  woman  discoun- 
tenances the  flowing  bowl,  that  the  rising  generation  will 
abjure  it,  and  follow  the  weaker  sex  in  taking  nothing 
stronger  than  the  cup  which  cheers  but  not  inebriates. 

11.  This  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  hinges  upon  the  point 
of  taxing. 

12.  He  was  possessed  with  great  depth  of  poetic 
thought. 

13.  This  accident  took  all  the  backbone  out  of  him 
and  left  him  with  little  heart. 

14.  "  In  vain  the  net  is  spread  in  the  sight  of  any 
bird."  And  Mayor  Harrison,  albeit  not  an  old  bird,  has 
cut  his  political  teeth. 

15.  A  look  of  tenderness  on  the  great  man's  face  dis- 
armed any  timidity  the  boy  may  have  felt. 

16.  In  the  reign  of  Richard  the  First  sufficient  food  is 
certainly  given  in  unravelling  the  huge  tangle  into  which 
public  affairs  had  fallen,  to  enable  a  writer  to  weave  a 
most  interesting  romance. 

17.  In  the  reign  of  Richard  the  First,  the  tangled  con- 
dition into  which  public  affairs  had  got  furnished  a 
splendid  foundation  upon  which  a  romance  might  be 
woven. 


PART   II 

THE  KINDS   OF  COMPOSITION 


CHAPTER   I 

NARRATION  1 

Read  again  what  was  said  in  Part  I  about 
paragraphing  narration  (pp.  98-101). 
Read  aloud  the  following  passages  : 

1.  The  cook  had  just  made  for  us  a  mess  of  hot  "  scouse  " 
—  that  is,  biscuit  pounded  fine,  salt  beet  cut  into  small 
pieces,  and  a  few  potatoes  boiled  up  together  and  seasoned 
with  pepper.  This  was  a  rare  treat,  and  I,  being  the  last 
at  the  galley,  had  it  put  in  my  charge  to  carry  down  for 
the  mess.  I  got  along  very  well  as  far  as  the  hatchway 
and  was  just  getting  down  the  steps,  when  a  heavy  sea, 

1  For  more  advanced  treatment  and  illustration  of  this 
and  the  following  types  of  composition,  the  instructor  may 
consult  Gardiner:  The  Forms  of  Prose  Literature  (Scrib- 
ners);  and  the  following  in  Messrs.  Holt's  English  Reading 
Series :  Baker's  Sppcimens  of  Argumpntation ;  Lamont's 
Specimens  of  Exposition  ;  Brewster's  Specimens  of  Narra- 
tion ;  Baldwin's  Specimens  of  Description^  and  Specimens  of 
the  Forms  of  Discourse^  by  the  present  writer. 
372 


NARRATION  373 

lifting  the  stern  out  of  the  water,  and  passing  forward 
dropping  it  down  again,  threw  the  steps  from  their  place, 
and  I  came  down  into  the  steerage  a  little  faster  than  I 
meant  to,  with  the  kid  [ration  tub]  on  top  of  me,  and  th6 
whole  precious  mess  scattered  over  the  floor.  Whatever 
your  feelings  may  be,  you  must  make  a  joke  of  every- 
thing at  sea,  and  if  you  were  to  fall  from  aloft  and  be 
caught  in  the  belly  of  a  sail,  and  thus  saved  from  instant 
death,  it  would  not  do  to  look  at  all  disturbed,  or  to 
make  a  serious  matter  of  it.  —  Dana  :  Tico  Years  Before 
the  Mast. 

2.  Friday,  July  22d.  This  day  we  had  a  steady  gale 
from  the  southward,  and  stood  on  under  close  sail,  with 
the  yards  eased  a  little  by  the  weather  braces,  the  clouds 
lifting  a  little,  and  showing  signs  of  breaking  away.     In 

the  afternoon,  I  was  below  with   Mr.  H ,  the  third 

mate,  andjtwo  others,  filling  the  bread  locker  in  the  steer- 
age from  the  casks,  when  a  bright  gleam  of  sunshine  broke 
out  and  shone  down  the  companion-way  and  through 
the  skylight,  lighting  up  everything  below,  and  sending  a 
warm  glow  through  the  hearts  cff  every  one.  It  was  a 
sight  we  had  not  seen  for  weeks,  —  an  omen,  a  god-send. 
Even  the  roughest  and  hardest  face  acknowledged  its 
influence.  Just  at  that  moment  we  heard  a  loud  shout 
from  all  parts  of  the  deck,  and  the  mate  called  out  down 
the  companion-way  to  the  captain,  who  was  sitting  in  the 
cabin.  What  he  said,  we  could  not  distinguish,  but  the 
captain  kicked  over  his  chair,  and  was  on  deck  at  one 
jump.  We  could  not  tell  what  it  was ;  and,  anxious  as 
we  were  to  know,  the  discipline  of  the  ship  would  not 
allow  of  our  leaving  our  places.  Yet,  as  we  were  not 
called,  we  knew  there  was  no  danger.  W^e  hurried  to 
get  through  with  our   job,   when,  seeing  the  steward's 

black  face  peering  out  of  the  pantry,  Mr.  H hailed 

him,  to  know  what  was  the  matter.     "  Lan'  o,  to  be  sure, 


374  NARRATION 

sir  I  '^o  you  hear  *era  sing  out,  '  Lan  o  *  ?  De  cap'em 
say  'im  Cape  Horn  ! ''  —  Dana  :  Two  Years  Before  the 
Mast. 

3.  About  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  I  was  awakened 
by  a  sound  as  of  some  animal  crunching  bones  just  at 
the  entrance  to  the  tent-fly.  Hastily  grasping  a  rifle,  I 
called  my  two  companions,  and  cautioned  them  not  to 
make  any  noise.  Through  the  closely  woven  meshes  of 
the  nets,  the  outlines  could  be  traced  of  two  animals 
which  were  despatching  several  bones — the  remains  of 
our  dinner.  Before  we  could  arise,  however,  our  visitors, 
having  heard  a  sound  within,  had  moved  away  slowly, 
completing  their  supper  as  they  departed.  As  the  animals 
retreated  we  became  braver,  and  being  armed  with  Win- 
chesters, did  not  feel  disposed  to  throw  away  the  honor 
of  killing  the  first  tiger. 

"  Let  us  follow  them  as  far  as  the  edge  of  t)ie  forest," 
I  said. 

The  suggestion  was  adopted,  and  clad  only  in  red 
flannel  sleeping-suits,  we  stepped  out  of  our  tent  into  the 
damp  night  air.  The  Tain  had  ceased,  but  the  ground 
was  still  wet  and  soggy,  and  as  our  bared  feet  sank  deep 
into  the  soft  slime  the  possibility  of  stepping  upon  some 
venomous  reptile  added  another  terror  to  the  situation. 
The  moon,  which  had  just  risen,  was  obscured  by  a  bank 
of  black  rain  clouds  in  the  east;  still  there  was  sufficient 
light  to  follow  the  outlines  of  the  two  tigers.  To  our 
surprise,  however,  they  did  not  appear  to  be  at  all  alarmed, 
but  continued  walking  slowly  away,  stopping  at  the  edge 
of  the  forest  to  continue  the  meal  which  had  been  so 
rudely  disturbed.  By  this  time  the  entire  camp  had 
been  aroused,  and  an  army  in  red  flannel  uniforms  was 
quickly  mobilized  for  battle.  Just  as  a  dozen  rifles  were 
levelled  at  the  tigers  the  moonlight  struggled  through  a 
rift  in  the  clouds,  and  we  saw  —  two  pet  dogs  of  the 


NARRATION  375 

expedition.  —  Lieutenant  W.  Xephew  Ring,  in  Har- 
pers Weekly  (adapted). 

4.  The  higher  1  got,  the  harder  and  more  slippery  grew 
the  snow.  The  soles  of  my  shoes,  having  become  soaked 
and  frozen,  made  walking  very  difficult.  At  twelve  thou- 
sand feet,  being  about  three  hundred  feet  above  the 
stream,  I  had  to  cross  a  particularly  extensive  snow-field, 
hard  frozen  and  rising  at  a  very  steep  angle.  Some  of 
my  coolies  had  gone  ahead,  the  others  were  behind. 
Notwithstanding  the  track  cut  by  those  ahead,  it  was  nec- 
essary to  recufc  each  step  with  one's  own  feet,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent slipping.  This  was  best  done  by  hammering  several 
times  into  the  white  sheet  with  the  point  of  one's  shoe 
until  a  cavity  was  made  deep  enough  to  contain  the  foot 
and  to  support  one  upright.  It  ought  to  be  done  care- 
fully each  time,  but  I  fear  I  had  not  the  patience  for  that. 
1  thought  I  had  found  a  quicker  method,  and,  by  raising 
my  knee  high,  I  struck  the  snow  with  my  heel,  leaving 
my  foot  planted  until  the  other  one  had  by  the  same 
process  cut  the  next  step. 

It  was  in  giving  one  of  these  vigorous  thumps  that  I 
liit  a  spot  where,  under  a  thin  coating  of  snow,  was 
hard  ice.  My  foot,  failing  in  its  grip,  slipped,  and  the 
impulse  caused  me  to  lose  my  balance.  I  slid  down 
the  steep  incline  at  a  terrific  pace,  accompanied  in  my 
involuntary  tobogganing  over  ice  and  snow  by  the  screams 
of  my  horror-stricken  coolies.  I  realized  that  in  another 
moment  I  should  be  pitched  into  the  stream,  which  would 
have  meant  being  carried  under  the  long  tunnel  of  ice 
to  meet  certain  death  beneath  it.  In  those  few  seconds 
I  found  time  to  speculate,  even,  as  to  whether  those 
stones  by  the  water's  edge  would  stop  me,  or  whether 
the  impetus  must  fling  me  past  them  into  the  river.  I 
attempted  to  get  a  grip  in  the  snow  with  my  frozen 
fingers,  to  stem  myself  with  my  heels,  but  with  no  sue- 


376  NABBATION 

cess,  when  I  saw  ahead  of  me  a  large  stone  rising  above 
the  snow.  With  desperate  tension  of  every  nerve  and 
muscle,  I  knew  as  I  approached  it,  with  the  foaming 
water  yonder,  that  it  was  my  only  hope.  I  consciously 
straightened  my  legs  for  the  contact.  The  bump  was 
tremendous,  and  seemed  to  shatter  every  bone  in  my 
body.  But  it  stopped  me,  and  I  was  saved  only  a  few 
feet  from  the  water's  edge  —  miraculously,  although  fear- 
fully bruised,  with  no  bones  broken. 

My  fingers  were  cut  by  the  ice  and  bleeding ;  my 
clothes  were  torn.  When  I  was  able  to  stand,  I  signalled 
to  the  frightened  and  wailing  coolies  above  to  go  on,  and 
I  myself  proceeded  along  the  watercourse  until  I  found 
a  spot  from  which  I  could  regain  the  upper  track. — 
Landor:   The  Forhidden  Land  (Thibet). 

Reproduce  each  of  the  four  selections  orally. 
Frame  a  title  for  each.  About  how  many 
words  are  there  in  the  first?  in  the  second? 
in  the  third?  in  the  fourth?  About  how  much 
time  is  covered  by  the  action  of  the  first  selec- 
tion ?  of  the  second  ?  of  the  third  ?  of  the 
fourth  ?  Does  each  of  the  passages  suspend  the 
reader's  attention?  In  which  two  is  suspense 
carried  up  to  the  very  last  words  ? 

Point  out  any  comparisons  that  are  used  to 
make  the  events  or  the  places  clear.  Is  any  of 
the  narratives  egotistic  in  tone,  or  do  all  merely 
seem  true  to  the  facts  ?  Is  the  introduction  to 
any  story  unduly  long  ?  Is  each  passage  entirely 
in  the  past  tense  ? 


NARRATION  377 

Exercise  101.  (Tlieme.^  Recall  from  your 
own  experience  some  short  incident  that  you 
think  might  interest  the  class.  It  should  con- 
sist of  happenings  which  all  together  lasted  but 
a  few  minutes,  but  were  somewhat  exciting  at 
the  time.  Write  an  account  of  them  from  two 
to  three  hundred  words  long  (two  or  three 
paragraphs),  letting  the  first  paragraph  state 
whatever  is  strictly  necessary  to  explain  the 
situation.  Be  sure  to  keep  the  story  in  the 
past  tense  throughout.  Omit  no  detail  which 
might  add  vividness,  but  do  not  let  the  story 
drag.  Aim  at  suspense  ;  keep  back  the  com- 
plete outcome  till  the  very  end.  Do  not  hesi- 
tate to  use  the  personal  pronouns  ''  I "  and 
"  we  "  ;  boastfulness  does  not  consist  in  saying 
"  I,"  but  in  pretending  that  the  things  "  I "  did 
were  of  any  great  importance;  the  personal 
pronoun  in  the  expression  "  The  next  thing  I 
knew,"  is  not  so  offensive  as  the  awkward 
periphrasis,  "  The  next  thing  that  was  known," 
etc.  If  the  events  can  be  made  clearer  by 
comparisons,  make   use   of  comparisons. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  "It's  a  little  over  300  feet  down,"  Weir  says  in  my 
ear ;  "  317,  exactly,  to  the  vein.  I'll  listen  at  the  top.  If 
you  shout  I  can  hear  you.     Are  you  ready?  " 


378  NARRATION 

"Yes." 

The  sling  hangs  above  the  pipe.  I  run  my  arms 
through  it,  and  hang  at  full  length,  arms  and  legs  free. 
My  lamp  I  hook  in  my  belt  in  front.  "  Lower  away,"  I 
say,  and  my  feet,  body,  head,  enter  the  hole,  and  its 
blackness  closes  around  me.  I  hear  a  deep  sigh  from 
the  crowd  as  I  disappear. 

It's  tight  on  all  sides.  Even  the  air  I  breathe  seems 
cramped.  I  descend  steadily,  and  feel  the  smooth  rock 
rubbing  against  my  body.  Down  —  down  —  down  — 
slowly,  a  patch  of  light  leading  my  sight  and  showing 
the  bit-marks  in  the  sandstone.  I  hear  Weir's  words  of 
command  to  the  men  at  the  crab.  His  voice  comes  to 
me  muffled  and  hollow,  but  I  understand  what  he  says. 
This  reassures  me  somewhat,  for  as  I  descend  farther 
into  the  hole  a  nervous  feeling  comes  over  me.  I  imagine 
all  sorts  of  probable  and  improbable  things;  and  then 
the  dreads  cease,  and  I  feel  my  legs  hanging  fi-ee,  and 
my  body  drops  into  the  heading,  and  I  stand  on  the  gang- 
way floor  of  number  four  lift,  west,  back  of  the  fire. 
—  Adapted  from  Phil  More  :  Tom  Tail-Rope's  Exploit. 
(McCliire's  Magazine,  February,  1900.) 

2.  My  immediate  task  is  to  dig  a  ditch  along  the  outer 
side  of  the  rotting  planks,  so  that  they  can  be  removed 
and  replaced  by  new  ones.  I  am  soon  alone  on  the  job, 
for  the  farmers'  work  calls  them  elsewhere.  The  experi- 
ence in  the  sewer-ditch  at  Middletown  is  all  to  my  credit, 
and  my  spirits  rise  with  the  discovery  that  I  can  handle 
my  pick  and  shovel  more  effectively,  and  with  less  sense 
of  exhaustion.  And  then  the  stint  is  my  own,  and  no 
boss  stands  guard  over  me  as  a  dishonest  workman.  At 
least  I  am  conscious  of  none,  and  I  am  working  on  mer- 
rily, when  suddenly  I  become  aware  of  my  employer 
bending  over  the  ditch  and  watching  me  intently. 

It  is  a  face  very  red  with  the  heat  and  much  bespat- 


NARRATION  379 

tered  with  the  mud  into  which  my  tools  sink  gurgiingly, 
that  I  turn  up  to  him. 

<'  How  are  you  getting  on  ?  '* 

"  Pretty  well,  thank  you.'* 

"  You  mustn't  work  too  hard.  All  that  I  ask  of  a  man 
is  to  work  steady.     Have  an  apple  ?  " 

He  is  gone  in  a  moment,  and  I  stand  in  the  ditch  eat- 
ing the  apple  with  immense  relish,  and  thinking  what  a 
good  sort  that  farmer  is,  and  how  thoroughly  he  under- 
stands the  principle  of  getting  his  best  work  out  of  a 
man  !  He  has  appealed  to  my  sense  of  honor  by  intrust- 
ing the  job  to  me,  and  now  he  has  won  me  completely 
to  his  interests  by  showing  concern  in  mine.  —  W.  A. 
Wyckoff:   The  Workers. 

About  how  much  time  is  covered  by  the  first 
selection  ?  the  second  ?  Are  the  passages  in 
the  past  tense,  or  in  the  historical  present  ?  Is 
there  any  change  of  tense  in  either  passage? 
Does  the  tense  used  increase  the  vividness  of 
the  narratives  ?  does  it  increase  the  rapidity  ? 
does  it  in  either  case  add  to  the  suspense  ? 

Exercise  102.  QTheme.^  Recall  some  expe- 
rience of  your  own  which  seemed  at  the  time 
to  be  full  of  suspense,  and  which  you  remember 
vividly  to-day.  Narrate  it  in  not  more  than 
three  hundred  words,  using  the  historical  pres- 
ent throughout.  Hereafter  avoid  dropping  out 
of  the  past  into  the  historical  present,  and  as 
quickly  dropping  back. 


380  NAHBATION 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

Thud,  thud,  thud,  went  the  feet  in  front  and  behind 
him.  He  was  now  just  entering  the  straightaway  oppo- 
site the  grand-stands.  He  observed  that  he  was  keeping 
stride  with  the  one  in  front  of  him.  He  knew  that 
old  runners  sometimes  weary  out  novices,  by  thus  mak- 
ing them  run  an  unnatural  stride.  It  worried  him,  but 
he  could  not  seem  to  change.  His  eyes  still  clung  to  the 
number.  He  studied  it  nervously.  It  was  83.  Each 
roughness  in  the  printing,  the  spots  of  dust,  the  threads 
of  the  cloth,  he  examined  intently.'  It  occurred  to  him 
that  it  could  be  easily  made  into  an  88.  At  the  time, 
this  seemed  a  deduction  of  importance. 

The  thudding  crunch  of  the  spikes  into  the  track  and 
the  rain  of  the  cinders  against  his  bare  legs,  which  he 
now  began  to  notice,  told  him  how  fast  they  swept  along. 
Now  and  then  a  lump  hit  his  face,  and  one,  swifter  than 
the  rest,  struck  into  his  eye.  It  scratched  painfully,  and 
he  saw  the  black  83  with  but  one  eye.  They  were 
directly  across  from  the  stands  <now,  and  as  they  filed 
rhythmically  by  there  were  pleased  little  "Ohs"  which 
he  could  not  hear.  Nor  did  he  notice,  except  in  a  con- 
fused way,  the  shouts  from  the  half-dressed  figures  who, 
leaning  from  the  balcony  and  upper  windows  of  the  field- 
house,  as  the  group  passed,  yelled,  "  Good  work !  Hang 
on  "  and  "  Keep  it  up  !     You're  all  right  I  "  .  .  . 

They  were  entering  the  stretch.  Striding  ahead,  with 
first  place  easily  his,  was  the  veteran.  The  second  blue 
jersey  was  not  more  than  a  rod  ahead.  The  Freshman 
fastened  his  eyes  upon  the  advancing  back,  and,  foot  by 
foot,  came  up  to  it,  as  you  would  pull  yourself,  hand- 
over-hand, up  a  rope.  He  shut  his  eyes  for  an  instant, 
and  again  swerved  to  the  right.     Then  he  heard  some- 


NARRATION  381 

thing  from  the  waiting  stands  down  the  track.  For  sev- 
eral seconds  there  had  been  confused  cheering,  but  he 
had  not  understood  it.  This  was  something  he  had 
never  heard  before.  It  was  his  own  name  shouted  out 
by  the  black  waving  mass  that  stretched  all  along  the 
straightaway  to  the  tape.  All  in  a  flash  it  came  to  him 
that  the  great  crowd,  instead  of  being  a  cruel,  silent, 
staring  enemy,  was  with  him.  And  the  track,  instead  of 
being  a  sort  of  operating  table,  was  a  place  on  which  to 
race,  and  sometimes  win.  And  the  other  runners,  the 
spectators,  every  detail  of  it  all,  were  only  parts  of  a  big 
game  which,  after  all,  ought  to  be  fun. 

Fifty  yards  away  in  front  he  could  see,  stretched 
breast-high  across  the  track,  the  narrow  line  of  crim- 
son tape.  With  the  shouts  at  his  side  sounding  glori- 
ously in  his  ears,  he  took  his  eyes  from  his  rival,  and 
held  them  to  that  narrow  streak  of  red.  In  his  mind  he 
took  in  the  number  of  strides  and  the  strength  it  would 
take  to  reach  it,  just  as  you  understand  a  whole  sentence 
of  print  at  a  glance.  He  felt  that  he  could  do  it,  though 
it  had  come  to  be  amazingly  hard.  For  the  track  had 
taken  on  an  odd  habit  of  rolling,  rather  like  the  deck  of 
a  ship;  once  it  came  up  to  meet  him  so  that  his  foot 
struck  before  he  meant  it. to.  From  the  finish  mark  he 
could  hear  the  trainers  sternly  calling,  "  Keep  your  feet! 
Keep  —  your  —  feet !  " 

Then  at  last  he  saw  the  back  in  front  of  him  waver  a 
bit  in  its  course,  and  the  arms  and  upper  body  begin  to 
pump.  At  the  same  instant  the  great  black  mass  along 
the  lines  seemed  to  grow  taller.  The  Freshman  fixed 
his  eyes  again  on  the  wavering  number,  and  again  drew 
himself  nearer  and  nearer.  He  was  almost  neck-and- 
neck  now  —  just  a  shade  behind,  then  a  shadow  ahead. 
The  two  struggling  figures  seemed  inevitably  to  run 
together.     The  track  behaved  strangely,  and  the  Fresh- 


882  NABBATION 

man  could  not  keep  clear  of  the  man  at  his  side.  The 
tape  was  not  more  than  ten  feet  away,  when  their  elbows 
hit  hard  against  each  other.  For  a  moment  the  Fresh- 
man thought  he  was  falling;  then,  half  running,  half 
diving,  he  lunged  toward  the  tape— 'and  fell  on  the 
other  side. 

Scrambling  to  his  feet,  with  arms  and  neck  hanging 
very  limp,  and  breath  coming  very  quick,  he  looked 
round  him  in  a  dazed  way,  as  though  he  wondered 
what  had  happened.  Then,  because  his  knees  suddenly 
felt  very  queer  and  weak,  he  started  slowly  to  sit  down, 
when  many  arms  grabbed  him  and  he  felt  himself  raised. 
There  was  pushing  and  noise  and  much  dust.  As  for 
our  Freshman,  he  blinked  down  from  somebody's  shoul- 
der in  pleased  embarrassment  upon  the  crowd,  and  then, 
because  he  had  done  a  big  thing  and  felt  very  empty  and 
weak  and  queer,  he  let  his  head  droop  and  beneath  his 
half-closed  eyes  grinned  inside  at  the  crimson  "  H"  upon 
his  breast.  —  Arthur  Kuhl  :  His  First  Race.  {Outing, 
June,  1900.) 

Exercise  103.  {Theme.)  Select  from  your 
experience  some  brief  episode  in  which  you 
took  a  part  and  which  you  vividly  remember. 
Write  an  account  of  it,  using  the  preceding 
selection  as  a  model.  Record  as  definitely  as 
possible  the  feelings  that  you  had  at  each  suc- 
cessive stage  of  the  episode. 

Read  the  following  aloud  : 

"  Don't  you  think  friends  should  tell  each  other  every- 
thing?" 


NARRATION  383 

"Yes."  Peter  was  quite  willing,  even  anxious,  that 
Lenore  should  tell  him  everything. 

"You  are  quite  sure?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Then,"  said  Lenore,  "  tell  me  about  the  way  you  got 
that  sword." 

Watts  laughed.  "  She's  been  asking  every  one  she's 
met  about  that.     Do  tell  her,  just  for  my  sake." 

"  I've  told  you  already." 

"  Not  the  way  1  want  it.  I  know  you  didn't  try  to 
make  it  interesting.  Some  of  the  people  remembered 
there  was  something  very  fine,  but  I  haven't  found  any- 
body yet  who  could  really  tell  it  to  me.  Please  tell  about 
it  nicely,  Peter."  Lenore  was  looking  at  Peter  with  the 
most  pleading  of  looks. 

"It  was  during  the  great  railroad  strike.  The  Erie 
had  brought  some  men  up  from  New  York  to  fill  the 
strikers'  places.  The  new  hands  were  lodged  in  freight 
cars,  when  off  work,  for  it  wasn't  safe  for  them  to  pass 
outside  the  guard  lines  of  soldiers.  Some  of  the  strikers 
applied  for  work,  and  were  reinstated.  They  only  did  it 
to  get  inside  our  lines.  At  night,  when  the  substitutes 
in  the  cars  were  fast  asleep,  tired  out  with  the  double 
work  they  had  done,  the  strikers  locked  the  car  doors. 
They  pulled  the  two  cars  into  a  shed  full  of  freight,  broke 
open  a  petroleum  tank,  and  with  it  wet  the  cars  and  some 
others  loaded  with  jute.  They  set  fire  to  the  cars  and 
barricaded  the  shed  doors.  Of  course  we  didn't  know 
till  the  flames  burst  through  the  roof  of  the  shed,  when, 
by  the  light,  one  of  the  superintendents  found  the  bunk 
cars  gone.  The  fire  department  was  useless,  for  the 
strikers  two  days  before  had  cut  all  the  hose.  So  we 
were  ordered  up  to  get  the  cars  out.  Some  strikers  had 
concealed  themselves  in  buildings  where  they  could  over- 
look the  shed,  and  while  we  were  working  at  the  door. 


384  NABBATION 

they  kept  firing  on  us.  We  were  in  the  light  of  the 
blazing  shed,  and  they  were  in  the  dark,  which  gave  them 
a  big  advantage  over  us,  and  we  couldn't  spare  the  time 
to  attend  to  them.  We  tore  up  some  rails  and  with  them 
smashed  in  the  door.  The  men  in  the  cars  were  scream- 
ing; so  we  knew  which  to  take,  and  fortunately  they 
were  the  nearest  to  the  door.  We  took  our  muskets  — 
for  the  frames  of  the  cars  were  blazing,  and  the  metal 
part  too  hot  to  touch  —  and  fixing  bayonets  drove  them 
into  the  woodwork  and  so  pushed  the  cars  out.  When 
we  were  outside,  we  used  the  rails  again,  to  smash  an 
opening  in  the  ends  of  the  cars  which  were  burning  the 
least.  We  got  the  men  out  unharmed,  but  pretty  badly 
frightened." 

"  And  were  you  not  hurt  ?  " 

"  We  had  eight  wounded  and  a  good  many  badly 
burned." 

"And  you?" 

"  I  had  my  share  of  the  burn."  —  Ford  :  The  Honorable 
Peter  Stirling. 

About  how  much  time  is  covered  by  the 
events  related  ?  Are  only  the  important  details 
of  this  period  chosen,  or  is  there  some  waste 
material  ?  Is  the  language  simple  ?  Is  the 
tone  manly  and  modest?  Are  the  sensations 
of  the  writer  described? 

Exercise  104.  (^Theme.}  Select  an  episode 
of  your  life  in  which  it  was  necessary  for  you 
to  take  a  relatively  important  part.  Give  what- 
ever is  necessary  to  introduce  the  story  proper 


NARRATION  385 

and  to  place  the  scene  distinctly  before  us. 
Tell  only  the  important  things  that  happened, 
and  leave  yourself  as  much  out  of  the  account 
as  possible  without  falsifying  the  facts.  Do  not 
detail  your  own  sensations.  If  it  seems  neces- 
sary to  explain  why  you  took  a  part  in  the 
events,  dismiss  the  matter  with  a  few  words. 
You  probably  felt  at  the  time  that  there  was 
some  necessity  of  doing  what  you  did. 

Read  again,  aloud.  Dr.  Hale's  account  of  his 
childhood  (p.  91). 

Read  aloud  the  following : 

Very  many  of  the  objects  in  this  place  retained  the 
very  vivid  associations  with  the  imagination  which  they 
used  to  have  in  boyhood.  A  dark  closet  with  no  window 
always  seemed  a  little  awful,  because  it  was  associated 
with  Bluebeard,  who  here  slew  his  wife  amidst  a  lot  of 
dead  ones.  A  spot  near  an  elm  in  the  pasture,  otherwise 
unmarked,  was  where  the  demon  in  the  Arabian  Nights 
escaped  from  the  bottle.  A  steep  acclivity  in  the  mow 
land  with  rocks  and  scrub  trees  was  Bunyan's  "Hill  of 
Difficulty,"  and  a  boggy  place  in  the  cowpath  was  the 
"  Slough  of  Despond."  Moses  lay  amid  the  bulrushes 
behind  the  willows  just  below  the  dam.  Understanding 
that  an  altar  was  a  large  pile  of  stones,  I  pictured  Abra- 
ham about  to  slay  Isaac  near  one  in  the  east  lot,  and  no 
experience  of  my  real  life  is  more  vividly  associated  with 
that  spot.  Not  seeing  very  many  pictures,  I  made  them, 
and  the  features  of  this  farm  were  the  scenic  background 
and  setting  for  many  an  incident  and  story.  Everything 
2c 


386  NABBATION 

read  to  me  was  automatically  located.  Miss  Southworth's 
stories,  which  I  conned  furtively  in  The  Ledger,  all  seemed 
to  have  been  laid  out  on  this  farm,  with  the  addition  of 
a  few  castles,  palaces,  underground  passages,  dungeons, 
keeps,  etc.  In  a  school  composition,  I  parodied  Addison's 
Temple  of  Fame,  using  local  personages  and  events,  and 
there  it  still  stands  in  all  its  dazzling  marble  magnifi- 
cence, with  its  spires,  bright  shining  steps,  streaming 
banners,  minarets,  massive  columns,  and  a  row  of  altars 
within,  on  a  hill  in  our  pasture,  which  in  fact  is  drearily 
overgrown  with  mullen  and  brakes.  The  '*  Sleeping 
Beauty  "  was  just  behind  a  clump  of  hemlocks.  Under  a 
black  rock  in  the  woods  was  where  the  gnomes  went  in 
and  out  from  the  centre  of  the  earth.  My  mother  told 
me  tales  from  Shakspere  and  I  built  a  Rosalind's  bower 
of  willow;  located  Prospero's  rock  and  Caliban's  den. 
Oberon  lived  out  in  the  meadow  in  the  summer,  but 
could  only  be  seen  by  twilight  or  in  the  morning  before 
I  got  up.  There  was  a  hollow  maple  tree  where  I  fan- 
cied monkeys  lived,  and  I  took  pleasure  in  looking  for 
them  there. 

After  a  gun  was  -given  me,  I  peopled  all  the  brush  and 
trees  with  small  and  even  large  game.  One  spot  of 
brush  was  a  jungle,  going  past  which  I  held  my  weapon 
ready  to  shoot  a  tiger  quick,  if  he  should  spring  out  sud- 
denly at  me.  On  one  tree  I  once  saw  a  hawk,  which  I 
fired  at  from  an  impossible  distance,  and  toward  which 
I  always  stole  up  for  years  after,  hoping  to  find  the  same 
hawk,  or  if  not  that,  an  eagle,  or  just  possibly  the  great 
roc  itself.  This  gun  was  perhaps  the  most  effective  stimu- 
lus of  the  imagination  I  ever  had,  for  it  peopled  the  whole 
region  about  with  catamounts,  wolves,  bears,  lynxes,  wild 
cats,  and  a  whole  menagerie  of  larger  animals ;  made  me 
the  hero  of  many  a  fancied  but  thrilling  story;  took  me 
over  a  very  much  wider  area  of  territory  and  helped  a 


NARRATION  387 

sort  of  adventurous  exploring  trait  of  mind,  which  I 
think  on  the  whole  may  be  favorable  to  originality  and 
independence.  Moreover,  it  gave  me  some  knowledge  of 
animals  and  their  ways,  prompted  me  to  make  a  trunkf  ul 
of  stuffed  and  otherwise  prepared  collections  of  the  meagre 
fauna  of  that  region,  and  although  it  perhaps  did  not 
teach  me  much  natural  history,  it  gave  me  what  was 
better  for  that  stage  —  a  deep  sympathy  with  and  interest 
in  animals  and  all  their  ways,  which  now  quickens  my 
interest  in  the  psychology  of  instinct.  Although  it 
aroused  a  passion  for  killing,  which  is  anything  but 
commendable,  it  may  have  stimulated  the  very  strong 
reaction  of  later  years,  which  now  makes  it  almost  impos- 
sible for  me  to  give  pain  to  any  animal.  .  .  . 

Another  feature  was  the  element  of  personality  about 
certain  objects,  which  the  faint  traces  that  I  am  now  able 
to  recall  show  that  it  must  once  have  been  very  strong. 
Three  white  stones  in  the  buttress  of  a  bridge,  with  no 
resemblance  whatever  to  a  face,  always  gave  me  the 
impression  of  being  pleased,  satisfied,  contented,  and  con- 
stant. A  large  window  in  the  barn  was  broad  and 
smiled  forth  its  good  will  upon  all  passers  by.  A  tall, 
slender  young  tree  near  the  house  seemed  inspired  with 
ambition  to  mount  as  high  as  possible  and  to  exercise 
guardian  and  protective  functions.  A  sharp  steep  hill 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  away  in  front  seemed  to  frown, 
threaten,  and  repel,  but  an  open  flat,  which  extended 
still  further  up  by  the  brook  side,  invited  and  almost 
beckoned  us  to  walk  up  it.  A  crooked  tree  seemed  tense, 
dissatisfied,  unhappy,  and  another  with  low  branches 
always  invited  us  to  climb  and  took  pleasure  in  having 
us  in  its  limbs.  When  the  wind  blew,  this  tree  talked  to 
us  and  we  patted  it.  The  horses,  sheep,  cows,  pigs,  and 
hens,  all  had  individual  traits  and  character  and  many  of 
them  had  names  I  even  now  recall.    Some  were  feared, 


388  N  AERATION 

other  hated,  and  yet  others  loved;  while  some  possessed 
only  indifferent  qualities.  We  were  never  alone  when  in 
their  company,  and  there  was  always  a  relief,  especially 
if  it  w^as  a  little  dark,  in  finding  them  in  the  pasture. 
One  whole  chapter  could  be  written  upon  the  celestial 
experiences  ;  the  peculiar  sunsets  w-hich  invited  us  or  sug- 
gested the  Judgment  Day;  the  storms  of  rain,  snow,  and 
hail,  with  thunder  ;  the  wind  with  all  its  notes  and  noises 
in  the  trees  and  down  the  chimney;  and  especially  the 
clouds  with  all  their  peerless  schooling  for  the  imagina- 
tion. Everything  conceivable  almost  was  seen  in  their 
forms  and  they  contributed  even  more  than  thunder  to 
give  a  sense  of  reality  above.  —  President  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  in  The  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  VI.,  No.  4. 

Exercise  105.  {Theme,}  Write  an  account 
of  your  own  childhood,  selecting  whatever  you 
think  might  interest  the  class,  and  passing 
quickly  over  uninteresting  places,  events,  and 
persons.  Mentioning  the  various  towns  and 
houses  in  which  you  lived,  try  to  speak  of  them 
as  they  seemed  to  your  child  mind. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

It  was  a  dull,  rainy  day;  the  fog  rested  low  upon  the 
mountains,  and  the  time  hung  heavily  upon  our  hands. 
About  three  o'clock  the  rain  slackened  and  we  emerged 
from  our  den,  Joe  going  to  look  after  his  horse,  which 
had  eaten  but  little  since  coming  into  the  woods,  the 
poor  creature  was  so  disturbed  by  the  loneliness  and  the 
black  flies;  I,  to  make  preparations  for  dinner,  while  my 
companion  lazily  took  his  rod  and  stepped  to  the  edge  of 
the  big  pool  in  front  of  camp.     At  the  first  introductory 


NARRATION  389 

cast,  and  when  his  fly  was  not  fifteen  feet  from  him  upon 
the  water,  there  was  a  lunge  and  a  strike,  and  apparently 
the  fisherman  had  hooked  a  boulder.  I  was  standing  a 
few  yards  below,  engaged  in  washing  out  the  coffee-pail, 
when  I  heard  him  call  out :  — 

"  I  have  got  him  now  !  " 

"  Yes,  1  see  you  have,"  said  I,  noticing  his  bending 
pole  and  moveless  line;  "when  I  am  through,  I  will  help 
you  get  loose." 

"Xo,  but  I'm  not  joking,"  said  he;  "T  have  got  a  big 
fish." 

I  looked  up  again,  but  saw  no  reason  to  change  my 
impression,  and  kept  on  with  my  work. 

It  is  proper  to  say  that  my  companion  was  a  novice  at 
fly-fisliing,  never  having  cast  a  fly  till  upon  this  trip. 

Again  he  called  out  to  me,  but,  deceived  by  his  cool- 
ness and  nonchalant  tones,  and  by  the  lethargy  of  the 
fish,  I  gave  little  heed.  I  knew  very  well  that,  if  I  had 
struck  a  fish  that  held  me  down  in  that  w^ay,  I  should 
have  been  going  through  a  regular  w^ar-dance  on  that 
circle  of  boulder-tops,  and  should  have  scared  the  game 
into  activity  if  the  hook  had  failed  to  wake  him  up. 
But  as  the  farce  continued  I  drew  near. 

"Does  that  look  like  a  stone  or  a  log?  "  said  my  friend, 
pointing  to  his  quivering  line,  slowly  cutting  the  current 
up  toward  the  centre  of  the  pool. 

My  scepticism  vanished  in  an  instant,  and  I  could 
hardly  keep  my  place  on  the  top  of  the  rock. 

"  I  can  feel  him  breathe,"  said  the  now  warming  fisher- 
man; "just  feel  of  that  pole  !  " 

I  put  my  eager  hand  upon  the  butt,  and  could  easily 
imagine  I  felt  the  throb  or  pant  of  something  alive  down 
there  in  the  black  depths.  But  whatever  it  was  moved 
about  like  a  turtle.  My  companion  was  praying  to  hear 
his  reel  spin,  but  it  gave  out  now  and  then  only  a  fevir 


390  NARRATION 

hesitating  clicks.  Still  the  situation  was  excitingly 
dramatic,  and  we  were  all  actors.  I  rushed  for  the  land- 
ing-net, but,  being  unable  to  find  it,  shouted  desperately 
for  Joe,  who  came  hurrying  back,  excited  before  he  had 
learned  what  the  matter  was.  The  net  had  been  left  at 
the  lake  below,  and  must  be  had  with  the  greatest  de- 
spatch. In  the  meantime  I  skipped  about  from  boulder 
to  boulder  as  the  fish  worked  this  way  or  that  about  the 
pool,  peering  into  the  water  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  him, 
for  he  had  begun  to  yield  a  little  to  the  steady  strain 
that  was  kept  upon  him.  Presently  I  saw  a  shadowy, 
unsubstantial  something  just  emerge  from  the  black 
depths,  then  vanish.  Then  I  saw  it  again,  and  this  time 
the  huge  proportions  of  the  fish  were  faintly  outlined  by 
the  white  facings  of  his  fins.  The  sketch  lasted  but  a 
twinkling ;  it  was  only  a  flitting  shadow  upon  a  darker 
background,  but  it  gave  me  the  profoundest  Ike  Walton 
thrill  I  ever  experienced.  I  had  been  a  fisher  from  my 
earliest  boyhood.  I  came  from  a  race  of  fishers ;  trout 
streams  gurgled  about  the  roots  of  the  family  tree,  and 
there  was  a  long  accumulated  and  transmitted  tendency 
and  desire  in  me  that  that  sight  gratified.  I  did  not  wish 
the  pole  in  my  own  hands ;  there  was  quite  enough  elec- 
tricity overflowing  from  it  and  filling  the  air  for  me. 
The  fish  yielded  more  and  more  to  the  relentless  pole, 
till,  in  about  fifteen  minutes  from  the  time  he  was  struck, 
he  came  to  the  surface,  then  made  a  little  whirlpool 
where  he  disappeared  again. 

But  presently  he  was  up  a  second  time,  and  lashing 
the  water  into  foam  as  the  angler  led  him  toward  the 
rock  upon  which  I  was  perched  net  in  hand.  As  I 
reached  toward  him,  down  he  went  again,  and,  taking 
another  circle  of  the  pool,  came  up  still  more  exhausted, 
when,  between  his  paroxysms,  I  carefully  ran  the  net 
over  him  and  lifted  him  ashore,  amid,  it  is  needless  to 


NARRATION  391 

say,  the  wildest  enthusiasm  of  the  spectators.  The  con- 
gratulatory laughter  of  the  loons  down  on  the  lake 
showed  how  even  the  outsiders  sympathized.  Much 
larger  trout  have  been  taken  in  these  waters  and  in 
others,  but  this  fish  would  have  swallowed  any  three  we 
had  ever  before  caught. — John  Burroughs:  Locusts 
and  Wild  Honey. 

At  what  point  in  this  story  does  the  reader's 
suspense  distinctly  begin  ?  Is  the  suspense 
kept  up  until  the  very  end?  Does  the  account 
drag  at  any  point  ?  Is  the  dialogue  necessary 
to  an  understanding  of  the  story  ?  Does  it 
increase  the  vividness  of  the  action,  the  sense 
of  reality  ?     Does  it  increase  the  suspense  ? 

Exercise  106.  (Theme.)  From  your  own 
experience  write  a  narrative  that  will  produce 
suspense  up  to  the  last  moment.  Tell  the 
story  partly  by  dialogue,  taking  pains  that  the 
dialogue  shall  really  help  the  narrative  along 
and  also  increase  the  suspense.  Use  any  com- 
parisons that  are  needed  to  make  any  part  of 
the  action  clear. 

Read  aloud  the  following  paragraphs  : 

1.  When  G  Troop  passed  on  across  the  trail  to  the 
left,  I  stopped  at  the  place  where  the  column  had  first 
halted  —  it  had  been  converted  into  a  dressing  station 
and  the  wounded  of  G  Troop  were  left  there  in  the  care 
of  the  hospital  stewards.   A  tall,  gaunt  young  man  with  a 


392  NARRATION 

cross  on  his  arm  was  just  coming  back  up  the  trail.  Plis 
head  was  bent,  and  by  some  surgeon's  trick  he  was 
advancing  rapidly  with  great  strides,  and  at  the  same 
time  carrying  a  wounded  man  much  heavier  than  him- 
self across  his  shoulders.  As  I  stepped  out  of  the  trail 
he  raised  his  head,  and  smiled  and  nodded,  and  left  me 
wondering  where  I  had  seen  him  before,  smiling  in  the 
same  cheery,  confident  way,  and  moving  in  that  same 
position.  I  knew  it  could  not  have  been  under  the  same 
conditions,  and  yet  he  was  certainly  associated  with 
another  time  of  excitement  and  rush  and  heat,  and  then 
I  remembered  him.  He  had  been  covered  with  blood 
and  dirt  and  perspiration  as  he  was  now,  only  then  he 
wore  a  canvas  jacket  and  the  man  he  carried  on  his 
shoulders  was  trying  to  hold  him  back  from  a  white- 
w^ashed  line.  And  I  recognized  the  young  doctor  with 
the  blood  bathing  his  breeches  as  "Bob"  Church,  of 
Princeton.  That  was  only  one  of  four  badly  wounded 
men  he  carried  on  his  shoulders  that  day  over  a  half-mile 
of  trail  that  stretched  from  the  firing-line  back  to  the 
dressing  station  under  an  unceasing  fire.  And  as  the 
senior  surgeon  was  absent  he  had  chief  responsibility 
that  day  for  all  the  wounded,  and  that  so  few  of  them 
died  is  greatly  due  to  this  young  man  who  went  down 
into  the  firing-line  and  pulled  them  from  it,  and  bore 
them  out  of  danger.  —  R.  H.  Davis:  The  Cuban  and 
Porto  Rican  Campaigns. 

2.  In  the  hollow  of  the  w^oods,  yesterday  afternoon,  I 
lay  a  long  while  watching  a  squirrel,  who  was  capering 
about  among  the  trees  over  my  head  (oaks  and  white 
pines,  so  close  together  that  their  branches  intermingled). 
The  squirrel  seemed  not  to  approve  of  my  presence,  for 
he  frequently  uttered  a  sharp,  quick,  angry  noise,  like 
that  of  a  scissors-grinder's  wheel.  Sometimes  I  could  see 
him  sitting  on  an  impending  bough,  w^ith  his  tail  over 


NARRATION  393 

his  back,  looking  down  pryingly  upon  me.  It  seems  to 
be  a  natural  posture  with  him,  to  sit  on  his  hind  legs, 
holding  up  his  forepaws.  Anon,  with  a  peculiarly  quick 
start,  he  would  scrauible  along  the  branch,  and  be  lost  to 
sight  in  another  part  of  the  tree,  whence  his  shrill  chatter 
would  again  be  heard.  Then  I  would  see  him  rapidly 
descending  the  trunk,  and  running  along  the  ground; 
and  a  moment  afterwards,  casting  my  eye  upwards,  I 
beheld  him  flitting  like  a  bird  among  the  high  limbs  at 
the  summit,  directly  above  me.  Afterwards,  he  appar- 
ently became  accustomed  to  my  society,  and  set  about 
some  business  of  his  own.  He  came  down  to- the  ground, 
took  up  a  piece  ot  a  decayed  bough  (a  heavy  burden  for 
such  a  small  personage),  and,  with  this  in  his  mouth, 
again  climbed  up  and  passed  from  the  branches  of  one 
tree  to  those  of  another,  and  thus  onward  and  onward 
till  he  went  out  of  sight.  Shortly  afterwards  he  returned 
for  another  burden,  and  this  he  repeated  several  times. 
I  suppose  he  was  building  a  nest, — at  least,  I  know  not 
what  else  could  have  been  his  object.  Never  was  there 
such  an  active,  cheerful,  choleric,  continually-in-motion 
fellow  as  this  little  red  squirrel,  talking  to  himself,  chat- 
tering at  me,  and  as  sociable  in  his  own  person  as  if  he 
had  half  a  dozen  companions,  instead  of  being  alone  in 
the  lonesome  wood.  Indeed,  he  flitted  about  so  quickly, 
and  showed  himself  in  different  places  so  suddenly,  that 
I  was  in  some  doubt  whether  there  were  not  two  or  three 
of  them.  — Hawthorne  :  American  Note  Books. 

3.  At  half  past  ten  I  reached  a  small  room  high  in 
one  of  the  great  newspaper  offices  on  Washington  Street. 
Its  windows  looked  out  upon  a  strange  sight.  Far  below 
me  was  a  vast  expanse  of  human  heads  upon  which 
shone  the  bluish  white  glare  of  the  hooded  electric 
lamps.  As  white  bubbles,  densely  spread  upon  the  pale 
green  of  the  ocean's  water  in  some  rock-rimmed  grotto. 


394  NABBATION 

surge  now  out,  now  in;  to  left,  to  right;  advancing,  re- 
creating ;  crowding  or  separating ;  so  those  countless 
human  heads  swayed  first  one  way,  then  another,  moved 
by  fickle  eddies  and  forces  hard  to  understand.  Wild 
cries  came  from  the  crowd,  cheers,  jeers,  and  yells  of 
pain  or  brutal  merriment.  —  Bolles  :  To  the  North  of 
Bearcamp  Water, 

4.  "  Now  you  take  off  your  hat  and  sit  down  by  the 
window  and  watch  the  nuns,  while  I  get  supper.'' 

She  refused  with  scorn  all  offers  of  help.  Annice 
obediently  seated  herself  by  the  window,  and  looking 
down,  gave -a  little  cry  of  delight.  A  tall  building,  with 
a  golden  cross  above  it,  rose  among  the  dirty  tenement 
houses  like  a  lily  from  the  mire.  Walking  two  by  two 
among  the  apple  trees  in  the  great  walled  garden  behind 
it,  went  nuns,  "  in  black  clothes  and  in  white,"  singing. 
They  were  going  to  hold  vesper  service  at  a  tiny  shrine 
among  the  trees.  The  gentle  wind  made  their  tapers 
flicker  into  longer  flame.  Ivy  climbed  the  red  brick 
walls  of  the  building,  broken,  where,  in  a  high  niche,  a 
white  Christ  kept  watch  over  the  quiet  of  the  green  gar- 
den, the  tumult  of  the  squalid  streets.  The  beauty  of 
the  picture  made  the  girl's  eyes  dim.  —  Margaret  Sher- 
wood :  Henry  Worthington,  Idealist. 

5.  The  men  of  the  expedition,  it  seems,  had  become 
very  fond  of  monkey  meat,  the  red  species  in  particular 
affording  delicious  food.  Although  the  officers  had  learned 
to  eat  iguana,  a  lizard  that  is  found  all  over  the  isthmus, 
only  a  few  had  become  sufficiently  cannibalized  to  indulge 
in  monkey.  Several  of  us  decided,  however,  to  give  the 
men  a  treat  on  Christmas  day,  and  with  that  end  in 
view  went  into  the  woods  on  a  monkey-hunt. 

As  we  wandered  through  the  forest  hordes  of  the  little 
fellows  were  seen  jumping  from  tree  to  tree.  It  was 
difficult  to  get  within  rifle-shot,  however,  for  they  seemed 


NAREATION  395 

to  divine  oar  purpose,  and  after  making  all  manner  of 
grimaces  at  us,  would  scamper  away  at  our  approach. 
We  finally  managed  to  sneak  upon  a  number  of  them 
about  five  miles  away  from  the  camp,  when  several  well- 
directed  shots  brought  down  three  of  the  number.  As 
a  large  female  fell  we  noticed  that  within  her  arms  she 
carried  a  young  one.  What  became  of  it  no  one  could 
tell,  for  when  the  mother  was  picked  up,  though  we 
searched  the  tall  grass  carefully,  there  was  no  trace  of 
the  youngster.  Shouldering  our  game,  we  returned  to 
the  camp,  but  scarcely  had  we  thrown  down  the  bodies  in 
front  of  the  men  before  a  diminutive  monkey  was  discov- 
ered close  upon  our,  heels.  As  the  mother  lay  upon  the 
ground,  with  an  expression  of  agony  upon  her  face  that 
I  shall  never  forget,  the  infant  rushed  up,  utterly  ignor- 
ing our  presence,  and  sought  some  sign  of  recognition. 
As  there  was  no  response,  he  began  to  rub  the  body  vig- 
orously in  hopes  of  restoring  life.  Not  succeeding  in 
this,  he  threw  himself  across  the  body  with  a  human  cry 
that  is  still  ringing  in  my  ears.  The  little  fellow  was 
tenderly  removed,  and  afterwards  became  a  great  favor- 
ite among  the  men.  We  vowed  then  and  there  never  to 
shoot  another  monkey  —  a  promise  which  was  faithfully 
kept  during  the  remainder  of  our  stay  in  Nicaragua.  — 
Lieutenant  W.  Nephew  Ring,  in  Harper's  Weekly. 

Of  these  five  passages,  all  but  one — which 
one?  —  narrate  events  that  were  observed  by 
a  spectator  from  a  fixed  point.  Indeed,  this 
is  true  in  part  even  of  the  excepted  passage. 
Which  of  the  episodes  arouses  admiration  for 
heroism?  which  a  sense  of  pathos?  which 
merely  amuses? 


396  NARRATIOJSr 

Exercise  107.  {Theme.')  Recall  some  inci- 
dent which  you  observed  as  a  spectator  merely. 
Choose  one  as  interesting  as  possible  —  one  that 
moved  in  the  beholders  a  sense  of  jjity,  or  pa- 
thos, or  admiration*  or  humor,  or  perhaps  all 
these  feelings.  Narrate  it  as  vividly  as  possi- 
ble, taking  care  to  preserve  one  point  of  view 
throughout.  Be  as  accurate  as  if  you  were  giv- 
ing testimony  in  a  court  of  law.  Read  it  over 
aloud  (as  you  should  read  all  themes)  to  be 
sure  that  it  produces  the  effect  you  intended. 
Reading  aloud  is  an  important  part  of  theme 
work  when  the  emotions  are  aimed  at,  for 
it  is  always  easy  to  stir  a  different  emotion 
from  the  one  intended. 

Read  aloud  the  following  passages  : 

1.  Game  started  with  Yale  kicking  off  against  a  fairly 
strong  breeze  ;  Daly  made  a  catch  on  his  10-yard  line,  and 
running  10  more,  punted  to  Yale's  45-yard  line.  Yale  at 
once  revealed  the  expected  character  of  her  game,  for 
McBride  punted  on  the  first  down.  Harvard  imme- 
diately set  her  running  game  in  motion.  Sawin  going 
around  end  for  30  yards  behind  splendid  interference. 
Several  line  plays  with  the  ball  moving  along  steadily, 
and  then  Harvard  was  olf-side,  and  lost  the  ball.  Yale 
now  tried  Harvard's  line,  but  though  securing  the  first 
down,  could  make  no  further  progress,  and  lost  the  ball 
on  downs.     An  exchange  of   kicks   followed,  to  Yale's 


NAURATION  397 

advantage,  and  curiously  enough  Harvard  persisted  in 
this  style  of  game,  although  it  was  so  evidently  favoring 
Yale.  Then  Yale  tried  running,  and  made  no  impres- 
sion on  Harvard's  defence,  which  caused  no  surprise,  and 
Harvard,  having  lost  more  on  kicking  duels,  settled  down 
to  a  running  game.  From  her  own  45-yard  line  Harvard 
now  began  an  attack  so  fierce  and  so  rapid  that  Yale  was 
literally  swept  off  her  feet.  With  double  passes  and 
straight  and  terrific  plunges  through  the  line,  the  ball 
moved  on  continuously  towards  the  blue  line.  Sawin 
and  Kendall  had  been  used  in  a  few  plays  at  the  be- 
ginning, but  Ellis  had  made  the  last  25  yards,  when 
he  finally  placed  the  ball  on  the  2-yard  line  for  the  third 
down. 

It  was  a  remarkable  exhibition  of  line-breaking  and  of 
physical  endurance.  Ellis  was  called  on  again  for  the 
final  plunge,  but  Yale's  desperate  defence  saved  her  goal, 
and  Sharpe  quickly  punted  out,  Daly  making  a  free 
catch,  and  Burnett  failing  to  place-kick  a  not  very  diffi- 
cult goal.  —  Caspar  Whitney,  in  Harper's  Weekly. 

2.  The  Tegrus  eleven  were  now  preparing  to  fall  upon 
the  huge  fellow  who  broke  through  their  line  so  easily, 
and  as  they  stood  facing  their  opponents,  every  one  was 
keeping  his  eyes  fixed  upon  the  dangerous  player. 

Suddenly  the  quarter-back  received  the  ball,  and  with 
a  long  and  beautiful  pass  threw  it  to  one  of  the  half-backs 
who  was  standing,  apparently  indifferent  to  the  game,  far 
out  from  his  companions. 

The  ball  was  neatly  caught,  and  then  tucking  it  under 
his  arm  and  bending  low,  the  player  began  to  run  down 
the  field  close  to  the  line  and  with  almost  no  one  before 
him  to  oppose  his  way. 

In  a  moment  the  Tegrus  players  started  swiftly  after 
him,  but  the  most  of  them  were  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  field   and  were  compelled  to  run  farther  than  the 


398  NARRATION 

striped-legged  Crintop  man,  who  was  speeding  away 
swift  as  the  wind. 

Cheers  now  arose  from  the  Crintop  supporters,  and 
the  anxiety  depicted  upon  the  faces  of  the  Tegrus  con- 
tingent became  more  and  more  intense.  On  and  on  ran 
the  player,  and  soon  Oliver  and  several  of  his  men  were 
close  behind. 

"Stop  him!  stop  him!  Why  don't  they  stop  him?" 
shrieked  a  little  girl  among  the  supporters  of  the  Tegrus 
eleven;  and  Ward  turned  and  looked  at  her  with  a  glance 
of  sympathy.  He  understood  perfectly  just  what  her 
feelings  were,  and  perhaps  was  grateful  to  her  for  giving 
expression  to  them. 

Meanwhile  to  ''  stop  him  "  was  the  very  task  which  the 
Tegrus  boys  were  endeavoring  to  accomplish,  though  with 
an  evident  want  of  success  that  was  as  trying  to  them 
as  it  was  to  the  most  ardent  of  their  supporters. 

Oliver  and  several  of  the  team  were  now  close  behind 
the  swiftly  running  man.  Apparently  the  captain  of  the 
Tegrus  eleven  was  gaining  upon  his  rival,  but  the  goal 
was  not  far  distant  now,  and  his  best  efforts  might  be  too 
late.  The  eager  captain  stretched  forth  his  hands  to 
grasp  the  shoulders  of  the  player  with  the  ball  so  near, 
and  yet  at  the  same  time  just  beyond  his  grasp;  but 
apparently  the  effort  destroyed  his  balance,  and  after 
one  or  two  desperate  efforts  to  save  himself,  Oliver  stum- 
bled and  fell. 

Instantly  the  players  behind  him  came  running  swiftly 
on ;  but  stumbling  over  the  prostrate  body  of  their  cap- 
tain, they,  too,  fell  heavily  upon  the  ground,  and  were 
lying  or  rolling  about  on  the  grass  in  a  vain  effort  to 
check  their  fall. 

Meanwhile  the  Crintop  player  had  outstripped  all,  and 
running  leisurely  now  soon  placed  the  ball  behind  the 
line  directly  in  the  rear  of  the  goal  posts.     The  Crintop 


N AERATION  399 

contingent  cheered  lustily,  but  an  element  of  chagrin  was 
not  wanting.  It  had  required  twelve  minutes  to  gain  the 
first  touchdown,  and  they  had  confidently  expected  to 
have  it  within  five.  —  E.  T.  Tomlinson  :  Ward  Hill  at 
College. 

To  what  kind  of  audience  is  the  first  selec- 
tion addressed  ?  To  what  kind  is  the  second 
addressed?  What  paragraphs  in  the  second 
might  be  joined?  What  would  be  the  topics 
of  the  new  paragraphs  ?  Is  the  narrative  per- 
sonal (told  in  the  first  person)  or  impersonal 
(told  in  the  third  person)  ? 

The  apparently  simple  exercise  of  narrating 
an  athletic  contest  is  usually  a  revelation  to 
the  writer  of  how  hard  a  thing  communication 
by  words  really  is.  You  may  know  what  hap- 
pened at  the  game  ;  but  if  you  try  to  tell  it  to 
someone  who  is  unfamiliar  with  the  technical 
terms,  you  are  likely  to  have  hard  work. 
Many  such  an  account  turns  out  to  be  little 
better  than  the  score  of  the  game.  The  first 
thing,  then,  after  knowing  what  actually  hap- 
pened, is  to  find  out  or  imagine  how  much  your 
audience  knows  about  similar  games.  If  a 
young  man's  audience  is  a  school  class  that  in- 
cludes girls,  he  cannot  reasonably  expect  it  to 
understand  the  special  vocabulary  of  foot-ball 


400  NABBATION 

or  base-ball,  any  more  than  he  himself  can  be 
expected  to  name  intelligently  different  dress 
fabrics  and  their  colors.  If  the  young  man 
narrates  a  foot-ball  game  to  such  an  audience, 
he  need  not  begin  with  an  elaborate  explana- 
tion of  what  foot-ball  is,  but  he  ought  to  indi- 
cate something  of  the  purpose  of  each  move  as 
it  occurs.  Of  the  two  selections  given  above, 
the  second  rather  than  the  first  will  suggest  to 
him  his  best  method.  Dr.  Tomlinson's  account 
of  a  touchdown  is  roughly  intelligible  to  almost 
anyone.  His  reader  does  not  need  to  under- 
stand the  difference  between  half-back  and 
quarter-back  to  follow  the  events.  Notice,  by 
the  way,  how  much  the  narrative  gains  in  viv- 
idness by  describing  not  merely  the  way  the 
events  looked  to  the  spectators,  bi;t  the  effect 
they  produced  upon  the  spectators. 

Exercise  108.  (^Theme.}  Choose  a  partic- 
ular contest  that  you  have  seen  —  foot-ball, 
base-ball,  foot-race,  boat-race,  bicycle-race, 
wrestling  match,  or  what  you  will  —  and  write 
an  impersonal  account  of  it — not  mentioning 
yourself  even  as  a  spectator.  Avoid  excessive 
technicality  of  diction.  Make  the  story  as 
vivid   as   possible,  and   rapid.     Use   whatever 


NARRATION  401 

comparisons  are  needed.  Occasionally  speak 
of  the  effect  produced  upon  the  spectators  by 
the  incidents  of  the  game. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

Another  Arctic  expedition  has  returned  from  the  futile 
effort  to  reach  the  Pole  —  this  time  with  a  painful  story 
of  suffering  and  death.  Mr.  Walter  Wellman,  the  leader 
of  the  expedition,  which  has  just  reached  Tromsoe,  Nor- 
way, is  an  American  journalist.  In  his  advance  north- 
w^ard  he  had  two  objects  —  one  to  search  for  traces  of 
Andr^e  in  Franz  Josef  Land  and  the  islands  beyond  it, 
the  other  to  outdo  Nan  sen's  "  Farthest  North."  In 
neither  aim  did  he  succeed ;  no  ti^ce  whatever  was 
found  of  An  dree,  and  Wellnian's  highest  latitude  reached 
was  about  84°  north —  a  little  beyond  any  other  explorer 
than  Nansen,  but  more  than  two  degrees  less  than  the 
latter's  achievement.  The  party  left  Tromsoe  on  June 
26,  1898,  on  the  Fridtjof,  and  landed  at  Cape  Tegethoff, 
where,  as  also  at  Cape  Flora,  a  supply  house  was  built. 
An  outpost,  so  to  speak,  was  placed  further  north  (81°) 
in  the  autumn,  and  there  two  sailors  were  left  in  a  hut 
of  rocks  covered  with  walrus-hides.  One  of  these  men, 
Bentzen,  died  in  mid-winter,  and  the  terrible  solitude  of 
the  other  through  the  long  months  that  followed  may  be 
imagined.  He  slept  side  by  side  with  the  body  of  his 
dead  companion  for  two  months.  Early  in  the  spring 
Mr.  Wellman  and  his  companions  pushed  forward  with 
sledges  to  the  outpost  camp  to  Cape  Tegethoff,  where 
they  had  wintered.  Thence  they  advanced  by  sledge, 
passing  Freedom  Islands,  where  Nansen  wintered.  Like 
Nansen,  they  found  the  roughness  of  the  ice  a  terrible 
obstacle,  while  the  temperature  was  forty  or  fifty  degrees 
2d 


402  NARRATION 

below  zero.  Still  they  made  fair  progress,  but  one  ter- 
rible snow-storm  followed  another,  and  their  final  mis- 
fortune came  when  Mr.  Wellman  fell  into  an  ice  crevice 
and  seriously  injured  his  leg.  Retreat  became  necessary ; 
the  leader's  injury  was  made  worse  by  inflammation,  and 
headquarters  were  reached  only  after  much  hardship. 
It  is  feared  that  Mr.  Wellman  is  crippled  for  life.  The 
expedition  has  probably  added  somewhat  to  the  world's 
knowledge  of  island  geography  in  the  Polar  Sea,  but  it  is 
natural  for  the  non-scientific  reader  again  to  ask,  "  Was 
it  really  worth  while  ?  "  —  The  Outlook. 

Is  the  narrative  personal  or  impersonal? 
(Compare  Mr.  Wellman's  own  account,  p.  89.) 
Does  it  seem  to  be  a  fairly  complete  account  ? 
What  events  are  briefly  stated  that  might  have 
been  developed  more  fully  if  the  narration  were 
literary  rather  than  informative  in  aim  ?  Into 
what  paragraphs  might  this  long  newspaper 
paragraph  be  divided  ? 

Exercise  109.  {Theme,^  Secure  from  some 
friend  or  relative  the  material  for  the  narrative 
of  a  journey,  or  an  adventure.  Write  the 
narrative  in  the  third  person,  with  scrupulous 
regard  for  the  truth.  Let  your  account  be  as 
complete  and  straightforward  in  tone  as  The 
Outlook's  account  of  the  Wellman  expedition, 
but  dwell  more  at  length  than  that  upon  the 
dramatic  episodes.    Submit  your  account  to  the 


NARRATION  403 

person  who  supplied  the  material,  and  revise 
any  inaccuracies. 

Read  aloud  the  following  passage  : 

The  London  Times  and  other  leading  English  papers 
gave,  not  long  since,  the  facts  in  the  life  of  an  eminent 
teacher,  Mr.  Walter  Wren,  who  died  last  August.  . 

At  nineteen,  Mr.  Wren  was  attacked  by  a  spinal 
disease  which  gave  him  incessant,  dull  pain,  with  fre- 
quent paroxysms  of  fearful  agony.  His  family  and 
friends  felt  that  there  was  nothing  to  hope  for  in  his 
future  but  a  speedy  release  by  death  from  this  almost 
unbearable  suffering ;  but  young  Wren  declared  that  in 
spite  of  it  he  would  go  on  with  his  studies. 

He  did  so,  but  was  unable  to  look  at  a  book  for  so 
much  o:^  the  time  that  nine  years  passed  before  he  could 
take  his  degree.  He  then  chose  teaching  as  his  profes- 
sion, preparing  young  men  for  the  competitive  examina- 
tions to  enter  the  Indian  civil  service. 

He  had  no  equal  in  England  in  this  work.  The  men 
prepared  by  him  were  not  only  thoroughly  educated,  but 
taught  to  put  work  foremost  in  their  lives.  Mr.  Wren 
took  an  active  part  in  English  politics,  became  an  influ- 
ential member  of  society,  was  a  witty,  cheerful  compan- 
ion, and  a  loyal  friend.  Yet  the  torture  of  his  physical 
ailment  never  abated.    Sir  Walter  Besant  says  of  him  :  — 

"I  never  knew  an  instance  where  so  much  was  done 
in  life  against  odds  so  fearful  and  under  conditions  so 
grievous."  —  The  Youth's  Companion. 

Give  the  topic  of  each  paragraph.  What 
part  of  the  man's  life  is  entirely  passed  over  ? 
Why?     Read  also  the  following  : 


404  NARRATION 

Frank  Thomson,  President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road, was  one  of  the  ablest  men  that  the  railroad  system 
of  this  country  has  produced.  Born  in  Chambersburg, 
Pennsylvania,  in  1841,  after  a  common  school  education 
he  entered  the  shops  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  at 
Altoona,  and  quickly  mastered  the  mechanics  of  railroad- 
ing. His  capacity  and  energy  secured  him  early  recogni- 
tion. In  1861  he  had  much  to  do  with  the  construction 
o£  the  military  road  from  Washington,  and  for  many 
months  was  employed  in  keeping  the  Union  armies  in 
railroad  connection  with  the  capital.  In  1862  he  was 
put  on  duty  on  the  military  roads  south  of  Nashville. 
His  services  during  the  war  were  of  exceptional  impor- 
tance and  showed  marked  ability.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  he  became  Superintendent  of  the  Eastern  Division 
of  the  Peimsylvania  Railroad,  and  steadily  advanced 
from  that  time  until  he  became  President  of  the  road. 
Mr.  Thomson  brought  a  thoroughly  scientific  spirit  to 
his  work,  and  treated  the  raih^oad  not  simply  for  what 
could  be  made  out  of  it,  but  as  a  great  property  to  be 
managed  on  lines  of  the  highest  efficiency.  It  was  largely 
due  to  him  that  the  Pennsylvania  road  has  become  so 
substantial  in  structure  and  so  scientific  in  management. 
The  stone  roadbeds,  the  block  signal  system,  regular  and 
careful  inspection,  a  system  of  advancement  and  of  prizes 
for  efficiency,  were  some  of  the  means  by  which  he 
brought  the  road  up  to  its  present  high  position.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  personal  attractiveness,  and  a  princely 
host. —  The  Outlook  (adapted). 

,  Numerous  situations  require  of  an  educated 
person  the  ability  to  write  a  short  impersonal 
sketch  of  some  man's  life.  The  demand  usually 
begins  in  that  important  part  of  life  which  is 


NARRATION  405 

called  school ;  for  a  knowledge  of  biography  is 
one  of  the  clues  to  history  and  literature. 

Exercise  110.  {Theme,}  Choose  for  the 
subject  of  a  biographical  sketch  some  man 
whose  life  you  have  studied.  There  can  be 
no  objection  to  writing  about  Washington  or 
Lincoln  or  Grant  if  you  have  really  studied  the 
lives  of  these  men.  The  heroic  life  of  Park- 
man,  the  self-contained,  healthy  life  of  Bryant, 
the  pitiful  life  of  Coleridge  or  of  Poe  will  serve 
the  purpose  well.  Or,  you  may  be  able  to  write 
with  interest  of  some  less  famous  person.  You 
may  have  known  some  man  or  woman  who 
deserves  a  published  biography,  but  will  never 
get  it.  Mr.  Ruskin  once  expressed  the  opinion 
that  a  library  of  the  biography  of  unknown  per- 
sons might  be  made  which  would  surpass  fiction 
for  interest.  By  way  of  a  beginning  for  such  a 
series  of  works,  he  wrote  the  introduction  to 
The  Start/  of  Ida^  a  book  which  narrated  the 
life  of  an  obscure  Italian  girl. 

When  you  have  chosen  your  man  and  refreshed 
your  memory  concerning  him,  set  down  the  top- 
ics of  your  paragraphs,  afterwards  to  be  placed 
in  the  margin  of  your  theme.  Assign  to  each 
topic  an  approximate  number  of  words,  allow- 


406  W AERATION 

ing  most  space  for  the  significant  events,  and 
least  space  for  the  insignificant,  and  then  begin 
to  write.  How  to  keep  within  limits  when  it 
is  necessary  to  do  so  may  be  seen  by  the  com- 
pression in  the  following  sentences  : 

The  rustics  still  tell,  and  will  continue  to  tell,  so  long 
as  memory  lasts,  of  the  wonderful  man  who  took  their 
money  out  of  their  w^aistcoats,  exchanged  handkerchiefs, 
conveyed  potatoes  into  strange  coat  pockets,  read  their 
tlioughts,  picked  out  the  cards  they  had  chosen,  made 
them  take  a  card  he  had  chosen  whether  they  wanted  it 
or  not,  caused  balls  of  glass  to  vanish,  changed  half- 
pence into  half-crowns,  had  a  loaded  pistol  fired  at  him- 
self and  caught  the  ball,  ...  all  for  nothing,  to  oblige 
and  astonish  the  villagers,  and  for  the  good  of  the  house. 
—  Besant  :  All  Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men. 

j\ly  father  came  up  to  London  ;  was  a  clerk  in  a  mer- 
chant's house  for  nine  years,  without  a  holiday;  then 
began  business  on  his  own  account;  paid  his  father's 
debts ;  and  married  his  exemplary  Croydon  cousin.  — 
Rusk  IN  :  Prceterita. 

The  whole  account  should  come  well  within 
a  thousand  words.  Finally,  remember  that  you 
are  writing  a  story,  a  narrative,  and  do  not  let 
it  drift  into  analysis  of  character.  You  are 
telling  not  what  the  man  was  but  what  he  did  ; 
if  you  employ  here  and  there  a  sentence  or 
phrase  about  his  character,  it  should  be  merely 
to  throw  light  on  his  achievement. 


NABBATION  407 

Read  the  following : 

1.  While  Charles  the  Twelfth,  during  the  siege  of 
Stralsand,  was  dictating  a  letter  to  his  secretary,  a  bomb 
was  thrown  upon  the  house,  pierced  the  roof,  and  fell 
into  the  very  chamber  of  the  king.  At  this  fearful  sight, 
the  pen  dropped  from  the  trembling  hand  of  the  secre- 
tary. "What  is  the  matter?"  said  the  king,  calmly. 
"Ah,  your  majesty,  the  bomb."  "Well,"  replied  the 
king,  "  what  has  the  bomb  to  do  with  the  subject  of  the 
letter?  W>ite  on."  — O.  S.  Marden  :  The  Secret  of 
A  chievement. 

2.  A  group  of  students  out  from  college  on  a  holiday 
were  presented  to  the  same  lady  just  after  her  entrance 
to  the  White  House  for  the  second  time.  One  lad,  a 
Freshman,  pale  with  diffidence,  heard  himself  to  his 
horror  saying  in  a  loud,  squeaky  tone  of  authority :  — 

"Madam,  /think  you  have  just  cause  to  be  proud  of 
your  husband." 

The  other  boys  stared  with  amazement  and  delight, 
storing  up  the  "joke  on  Bill"  for  all  future  time.  But 
there  was  not  the  flicker  of  a  smile  upon  the  sweet, 
womanly  face  of  the  first  lady  of  the  land. 

"  Ah !  "  she  said,  gravely,  still  holding  his  hand,  "  you 
bring  me  the  verdict  of  posterity  !     I  thank  you." 

The  Freshman's  comrades  were  delighted  at  the  reply 
and  at  the  opportunity  given  to  chaff  Bill  upon  the 
awkwardness  of  his  address,  but  Bill  only  knew  that  he 
had  seen  what  seemed  to  him  the  kindest  woman  in  the 
world.  —  The  Youth's  Companion. 

3.  They  tell  a  story  of  Thorwaldsen,  the  great  Danish 
sculptor,  which  is  full  of  meaning  just  here.  When  you 
go  to  Copenhagen,  go  to  the  Frauenkirche  and  see  his 
great  statues  of  the  twelve  apostles.  There  is  nothing 
finer  in  modern  sculpture.     But  on  the  day  that  he  fin- 


408  NAEBATION 

ished  them,  he  went  into  a  friend's  studio  and  sat  down 
and  burst  into  tears.  "What  is  the  matter?"  said  his 
friend.  "Has  anything  dreadful  happened?"  "Yes," 
he  exclaimed,  "something  dreadful  has  happened  to 
me.  I  have  finished  my  twelve  apostles,  and  /  am 
satisfied  with  my  work;  and  that  means  that  there  is 
nothing  more  in  me  that  is  better!"  —  Bishop  H.  C. 
Potter,  in  The  Yout¥s  Companion. 

What  differences  do  you  observe  in  the 
methods  of  paragraphing  dialogue  ?  Does  the 
method  of  the  first  and  third  selections  hasten 
the  movement  of  the  story  ?  Would  this  method 
result  in  confusion  if  carried  to  some  length  ? 
Point  out,  in  all  the  selections,  the  ways  in 
which  narrative  is  interwoven  with  quotation, 
and  the  extent  to  which  description  is  intro- 
duced to  make  the  action  vivid. 

Exercise  111.  QTheme.^  The  anecdote  is 
one  of  the  most  charming  forms  of  composition 
if  well  done,  one  of  the  most  tedious  if  ill  done. 
An  anecdote  may  have  a  good  point,  but  be 
swamped  with  paragraphs  of  beginning  ;  or  it 
may  be  pointless  after  all  is  said  ;  or  it  may  be 
in  bad  taste.  For  your  anecdote  choose  some 
incident  from  your  own  observation  ;  let  it  be 
one  which  was  not  only  interesting  or  amusing 
at  the  time,  but  which  remains  so  in  your 
memory.     Then  write  it  out  in  the  most  vivid 


N AERATION  409 

possible  way,  paragraphing  the  dialogue  skil- 
fully, and  inserting  any  touches  of  personal 
description  that  will  increase  the  effect  of  the 
story.  Be  not  too  long  in  coming  to  the  point, 
nor  yet  reveal  the  point  by  any  hint  before  the 
proper  time.  Give  the  theme  a  title  which 
will  arouse  curiosity,  but  not  reveal  too  much. 

Read  aloud  the  following  passages  : 

1.  Far  up  in  the  mountains,  miles  from  any  settlement, 
we  live  the  healthful  life  of  a  lumber  camp,  working  from 
starlight  to  starlight;  breathing  the  mountain-air,  keen 
with  the  frosty  vigor  of  autumn,  and  fragrant  of  pine 
and  hemlock;  eating  ravenously  the  plain,  well-cooked 
food  which  is  served  to  us,  now  in  the  camp  and  now  on 
the  mountain-side,  where  we  sit  among  the  newly  stripped 
logs ;  sleeping  deeply  at  night  in  closely  crowded  beds ; 
in  the  cabin-loft,  where  the  wind  sweeps  freely  from  end 
to  end  through  the  gaping  chinks  between  the  logs,  and 
where  on  rising,  we  sometimes  slip  out  of  bed  upon  a 
carpeting  of  snow.  —  Wyckoff  :   The  Workers^ 

2.  In  an  old  biography  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall  there 
is  an  anecdote  which  gives  a  significant  hint  of  the  disci- 
pline to  which  young  people  were  subject  in  that  earlier  day. 

Several  of  the  great  jurist's  nieces  were  in  the  habit 
of  visiting  him,  and  as  they  were  young  and  attractive, 
the  houvse  became  a  rendezvous  for  the  leading  young 
men  of  the  city  during  the  afternoons.  Judge  Mar- 
shall's black  majordoino,  old  Uncle  Joseph,  held  a 
tight  rein  upon  these  visitors.  Every  day  at  four  o'clock 
he  would  appear  at  the  door  of  the  drawing-room  in 
spotless  livery,  and  with  a  prof ound  bow  would  announce : 


410  NARBATION 

"  Ladies,  his  honor,  the  chief  justice,  has  retired  to  his 
room  to  prepare  for  dinner. 

"  Gentlemen,  dinner  will  be  served  at  half  past  four 
o'clock.  It  is  now  four.  His  honor  will  be  pleased  if 
you  will  remain,  and  covers  have  been  laid  for  you  at  the 
table.  If  you  cannot  remain,  will  you  permit  the  young 
ladies  to  retire  to  prepare  for  the  meal  ?  " 

The  gentlemen  usually  took  their  leave,  and  the  ladies 
retired  in  an  ill  humor;  but  any  remonstrance  with 
Joseph  was  only  answered  by :  "  It  is  the  rule  of  the 
house.  Young  folks  must  be  kept  within  bounds."  —  The 
Youth's  Companion, 

3.  When  man  abides  in  tents,  after  the  manner  of  the 
early  patriarchs,  the  face  of  the  world  is  renewed.  The 
vagaries  of  the  clouds  become  significant.  You  watch 
the  sky  with  a  lover's  look,  eager  to  know  whether  it  will 
smile  or  frown.  When  you  lie  at  night  upon  your  bed 
of  boughs  and  hear  the  rain  pattering  on  the  canvas  close 
above  your  head,  you  wonder  whether  it  is  a  long  storm 
or  only  a  shower. 

The  rising  wind  shakes  the  tent-flaps.  Are  the  pegs 
well  driven  down  and  the  cords  firmly  fastened  ?  You 
fall  asleep  again  and  wake  later,  to  hear  the  rain  drum- 
ming still"  more  loudly  on  the  tight  cloth,  and  the  big 
breeze  snoring  through  the  forest,  and  the  waves  plunging 
along  the  beach.  A  stormy  day?  Well,  you  must  cut 
plenty  of  wood  and  keep  the  camp-fire  glowing,  for  it 
will  be  hard  to  start  it  up  again  if  you  let  it  get  too  low. 
There  is  little  use  in  fishing  or  hunting  in  such  a  storm. 
But  there  is  plenty  to  do  in  the  camp  :  guns  to  be  cleaned, 
tackle  to  be  put  in  order,  clothes  to  be  mended,  a  good 
story  of  adventure  to  be  read,  a  belated  letter  to  be 
written  to  some  poor  wretch  in  a  comfortable  house,  a 
game  of  hearts  or  cribbage  to  be  played,  or  ^  campaign 
to  be  planned  for  the  return  of  fair  weather.     The  tent 


NARllATION  411 

is  perfectly  dry,  and  luckily  it  is  pitched  with  the  side  to 
the  lake,  so  that  you  get  the  pleasant  heat  of  the  fire 
without  the  unendurable  smoke.  A  little  trench  dug 
around  it  carries  off  the  surplus  water.  Cooking  in  the 
rain  has  its  disadvantages.  But  how  good  the  supper 
tastes  when  it  is  served  up  on  a  tin  plate,  with  an  empty 
box  for  a  table  and  a  roll  of  blankets  at  the  foot  of  the 
bed  for  a  seat !  —  Henry  Van  Dyke  :  Fisherman's  Luck. 

The  passages  give  what  may  be  called  gen- 
eralized narrative.  Each  deals  with  a  type  or 
class  of  events.  Each  tells  what  usually  hap- 
pened or  happens  in  certain  circumstances. 

Exercise  112.  (^Theme.^  Write  a  gener- 
alized narrative,  giving  from  your  own  experi- 
ence or  from  that  of  another  an  account  of 
some  mode  of  life,  or  kind  of  excursion,  or 
average  day. 

Note  to  the  Instructor.  — Lack  of  space  forbids  print- 
ing examples  of  the  types  of  fictitious  narrative.  It  is 
however  recommended  that  later  in  the  course  all  students 
should  have  the  option  of  substituting  for  Exercises  120-124 
(descriptions  of  landscapes)  fictitious  narratives,  as  follows : 
an  improbable  adventure,  personal  or  impersonal;  a  fairy 
tale ;  a  probable  adventure,  personal  or  impersonal ;  a  realis- 
tic story,  witU  dialogue.  This  work  may  properly  be  deferred 
till  after  Exercise  135. 


CHAPTER   II 

DESCRIPTION 

Descbiption  in  itself  deals  chiefly  with  the 
appearance  of  objects  or  persons.  It  is  Hot 
concerned  with  the  principles  underlying  the 
construction  of  objects,  nor  with  the  character 
of  persons  —  except  so  far  as  the  reader  may 
infer  the  principles  or  the  character. 

In  describing  any  object  or  scene,  there  are 
always  two  possible  methods  or  stages.  We 
may  say  how  the  object  or  scene  looks  as  a 
whole,  or  how  it  looks  in  its  details.  In  practi- 
cal description,  there  is  nearly  always  need  of 
combining  both  methods.  The  engineer  or  the 
architect  is  expected  to  give  first  a  rough  sketch 
of  his  house  or  bridge,  and  afterwards  a  detailed 
description. 

This  seems  very  simple  ;  yet  if  left  to  him- 
self the  beginner  is  likely  to  omit  the  general 
impression ;  or  else  to  give  it  last,  when  it  is  of 
comparatively  little  value ;  or  else  to  report  it 
inexactly. 

412 


DESCRIPTION  413 

The  reasons  why  he  may  report  it  inexactly 
are  two.  Impressionism,  the  art  of  giving  in 
general  effects  the  first  fleeting  impression 
made  by  a  scene  upon  the  artist's  mind,  is 
difficult  if  only  because  the  impression  is  fleet- 
ing. After  we  become  interested  in  the  details 
we  find  it  hard  to  recall  just  how  the  whole 
seemed  to  us  at  first.  This  is  particularly  true 
of  persons ;  a  face  often  seems  a  wholly  differ- 
ent face  after  we  have  studied  the  details  of  its 
expression.  The  second  reason  is  that  our  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  the  subject  may  prevent  us 
from  seeing  the  object  or  scene  exactly  as  it 
really  appears.  On  this  point  the  art-critic 
Hamerton  says  : 

It  may  make  my  meaning  clearer  if  I  take  a  special 
example,  such  as  a  fall-grown  oak.  Considered  as  matter 
it  is  a  column  of  the  strongest  wood  we  have,  with  a 
foundation  much  fii-mer  than  that  of  ordinary  stakes  and 
piles.  The  column  is  so  strong  that  with  its  immense 
head  of  foliage  it  usually  resists  the  most  furious  gales  of 
our  latitudes.  No  edifice  built  by  man,  with  the  single 
exception  of  a  lighthouse,  has  foundations  in  any  way 
comparable  to  its  foundations. 

An  artist  much  impressed  with  this  idea  of  strength 
would  probably  draw  the  oak  with  hard  firm  outlines, 
and  give  its  rugged  character  with  great  force  and  truth, 
but  he  would  pay  less  attention  to  the  light  and  shade 
and  color.  In  a  more  advanced  stage,  he  would  think  of 
light  and  color  more  and  think  of  them  together.   Finally, 


414  BESCBIPTION 

in  the  visionary  stage,  an  oak  would  be  to  him  simply  a 
variety  of  color  masses  with  their  gradations  and  much 
confusion  of  mystery  in  leaves  and  branches.  In  this 
completely  artistic  way  of  seeing  things  there  is  no  neces- 
sity for  thinking  about  matter,  though  it  is  represented 
with  a  higher  kind  of  truth,  as  to  its  appearances,  than 
by  students  who  think  of  substance. 

We  are  all  of  us  visionary  artists  for  one  familiar 
object,  the  moon.  We  do  not  think  of  the  heavy  globe 
of  rock  with  prodigious  cloudless  mountains,  sun-heated 
to  an  intolerable  temperature.  That  is  the  scientific 
conception  that  we  keep  in  some  odd  corner  of  the  brain 
for  use  when  it  may  be  wanted,  as  one  keeps  a  scientific 
instrument  in  a  drawer ;  but  in  ordinary  times  the  moon 
means  for  us  a  crescent  or  a  disc  of  silvery  and  some- 
times of  golden  splendor,  the  brightest  thing  that  we  are 
able  to  look  upon  in  nature.^ 

The  double  principle  of  good  description  is, 
then,  that  we  should  see  the  object  as  a  whole 
and  in  its  parts,  and  report  it  as  it  looks  to  us, 
rather  than  as  it  seems  to  somebody  else  or  as 
we  preconceive  that  it  ought  to  look.  It  re- 
mains to  apply  this  principle,  with  its  depend- 
ent principles,  to  the  various. kinds  of  objects 
which  one  is  likely  to  choose  as  subjects. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  We  had  already  entered  a  church  (San  Luigi,  I 
believe),  the  interior  of  which  we  found  very  impressive, 
dim  with  the  light  of  stained  and  painted  windows,  inso- 

1  Imagination  in  Landscape  Painting,  p.  233. 


DESCRIPTION  415 

much  that  it  at  first  seemed  almost  dark,  and  we  could 
only  see  the  bright  twinkling  of  the  tapers  at  the  shrines ; 
but  after  a  few  minutes,  we  discerned  the  tall  octagonal 
pillars  of  the  nave,  marble,  and  supporting  a  beautiful 
roof  of  crossed  arches.  —  Hawthokne  :  French  and  Ital- 
ian Note  Books. 

2.  liCt  us  enter  this  mysterious  mosque  surrounded  by 
death  and  the  desert.  At  first  it  seems  dark  as  night : 
we  have  a  bewildering  sense  of  fairy-like  splendor.  A 
very  faint  light  penetrates  the  panes  which  fill  the  row 
of  little  windows  above ;  we  fancy  that  the  light  is  pass- 
ing through  flowers  and  arabesques  of  precious  stones 
regularly  arranged,  and  this  is  the  illusion  intended  by 
the  inimitable  glass-workers  of  old.  Gradually,  as  our 
eyes  grow  accustomed  to  the  dim  light,  the  walls,  arches, 
and  vaults  seem  to  be  covered  with  some  rich  em- 
broidered fabric  of  raised  mother-of-pearl  and  gold  on  a 
foundation  of  green.  —  Pierre  Loti  (trans.  Singleton)  : 
Turrets,  Towers,  and  Temples. 

3.  The  interior  of  the  Strasbourg  Cathedral  is  the 
finest  example  of  Gothic  which  I  have  seen. 

As  you  enter  it  is  like  night.  There  is  not  a  single 
transparent  window;  all  are  colored  and  dark.  And 
there  are  windows  everywhere  —  on  your  right  and  on 
your  left,  and  in  both  the  high  galleries.  A  strange  light, 
a  sort  of  purple  shadow,  pervades  the  vast  nave.  .  .  . 

In  front  of  us  the  choir  is  exceptionally  dark;  one 
window  stands  out  brightly  from  the  centre  of  the  apse, 
filled  with  shining  figures,  like  a  vista  of  Paradise.  The 
choir,  nevertheless,  is  crowded  with  priests ;  but  the  dark- 
ness is  so  deep,  and  the  distance  so  great,  that  there  is 
nothing  to  be  seen.  There  are  no  visible  decorations  or 
little  objects  of  worship;  only  two  chandeliers  sparkle 
in  the  gloom  with  lighted  tapers,  like  tremulous  souls, 
at  the  two  corners  of  the  altar,  amidst  the  grand  carvings 


416  BESmiPTION 

which   one  is  merely  permitted  to   imagine.  —  Taine  : 
Journeys  through  France. 

Which  words  in  the  foregoing  passages  de- 
scribe a  general  impression  made  upon  the 
spectator  ? 

Exercise  113.  (^Theme,^  Enter  a  dimly- 
lighted  room,  and  note  your  first  and  your  suc- 
ceeding impressions.  The  light  may  be  from 
any  source  —  moonlight  is  as  good  as  any. 
Remember  that  Virgil  says  that  night  takes 
away  the  color  of  things.  The  interior  of  a 
church  will  be  an  excellent  subject  if  there  is 
not  too  much  light.  Write  a  description  of 
what  you  saw,  and  nothing  else. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Johnny  looked  about,  as  the  foreman  had  advised. 
This  place,  where  he  was  to  learn  to  make  engines,  and 
where  he  was  to  work  day  by  day  till  he  was  twenty-one, 
and  a  man,  was  a  vast  room  with  skylights  in  the  roof: 
though  this  latter  circumstance  he  did  not  notice  till  after 
breakfast,  when  the  gas  was  turned  off,  and  daylight  pen- 
etrated from  above.  A  confusion  of  heavy  raftering 
stretched  below  the  roof,  carrying  belted  shafting  every- 
where ;  and  every  man  bent  over  his  machine  or  his 
bench,  for  Cottam  was  a  sharp  gaffer.  —  Arthur  Mor- 
rison :   To  London  Town. 

2.  It  was  not  a  light  that  first  attracted  me,  but  the 
black  bulk  of  a  cabin  that  seemed  to  rise  suddenly  from 
the  ground  on  my  right.     Soon  I  saw  that  it  was  occu- 


DESCBIPTION  417 

pied,  and,  going  near,  I  found  a  side  door  wide  open, 
with  lamp-light  streaming  from  it  into  the  night.  For  a 
moment  I  stood  unnoticed  in  the  doorway,  and  could  see 
at  a  glance  the  heavy  wooden  table  and  the  chairs  and 
the  large,  old-fashioned  cooking-stove,  and  the  prints 
tacked  to  the  .walls,  and  the  cooking  utensils  hanging 
behind  the  stove.  —  Wyckoff  :   The  Workers. 

3.  The  faultless  order  and  precision  which  had  ap- 
peared in  every  external  detail  of  the  farm  were  in  per- 
fect keeping  with  what  I  could  see  of  the  interior  of  the 
home.  It  contained  only  the  plainest  furniture,  but  the 
room  was  redolent  of  a  clean,  cool,  inviting  comfort,  per- 
fectly suited  to  the  needs  of  men  who  come  in  from  long, 
hard  work  in  the  heat  of  the  fields.  The  windows  and 
outer  doors  were  guarded  by  close-fitting  screens ;  the 
inner  wood-work  was  painted  a  light,  delicate  color,  as 
fresh  and  clean  as  though  newly  applied ;  and  the  walls 
were  covered  with  a  simple,  harmonious  paper  which 
matched  well  with  the  prevailing  shade  in  the  clean  rag- 
carpet  on  the  floor.  A  large  rocker  and  a  sofa,  covered 
with  Brussels  carpet,  were  supplemented  by  a  plentiful 
supply  of  plain  chairs.  —  Ibid. 

4.  A  few  minutes  later  Giovanni  found  himself  in  a 
narrow,  high  room,  lighted  by  one  window,  which  showed 
the  enormous  thickness  of  the  walls  in  the  deep  embra- 
sure. The  vaulted  ceiling  was  painted  in  fresco  with  a 
representation  of  Apollo  in  the  act  of  drawing  his  bow, 
arrayed  for  the  time  being  in  his  quiver,  while  his  other 
garments,  of  yellow  and  blue,  floated  everywhere  save 
over  his  body.  The  floor  of  the  room  was  of  red  bricks, 
which  had  once  been  waxed,  and  the  furniture  was 
scanty,  massive,  and  very  old.  Anastase  Gouache  lay  in 
one  corner  in  a  queer-looking  bed  covered  with  a  yellow 
damask  quilt  the  worse  for  a  century  or  two  of  wear, 
upon  which  faded  embroideries  showed  the  Montevarchi 

2  E 


418  DESCRIPTION 

arms  surmounted  by  a  cardinars  hat.  Upon  a  chair 
beside  the  patient  lay  the  little  heap  of  small  belongings 
he  had  carried  in  his  pocket  when  hurt,  his  watch  and 
purse,  his  cigarettes,  his  handkerchief,  and  a  few  other 
trifles,  among  which,  half  concealed  by  the  rest,  was  the 
gold  pin  he  had  picked  up  by  the  bridge  on  the  previous 
evening.  —  Crawford  :  Sanf  Ilario. 

5.  Sing,  Wo,  &  Co.  keep  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
shops  on  Jackson  Street.  It  is  neither  grocer's,  nor 
butcher's,  nor  fishmonger's,  nor  druggist's ;  but  a  little  of 
all  four.  It  is,  like  most  of  the  shops  on  Jackson  Street, 
part  cellar,  part  cellar-stairs,  part  sidewalk,  and  part  back 
bedroom.  On  the  sidewalk  are  platters  of  innumerable 
sorts  of  little  fishes,  —  little  silvery  fishes;  little  yellow 
fishes,  with  whiskers;  little  snaky  fishes;  round,  flat 
fishes,  little  slices  of  big  fishes,  —  never  too  much  or  too 
many  of  any  kind.  Sparing  and  thrifty  dealers,  as  well 
as  sparing  and  thrifty  consumers,  are  the  Celestials. 
Round  tubs  of  sprouted  beans ;  platters  of  square  cakes 
of  something  whose  consistency  was  like  Dutch  cheese, 
whose  color  was  vivid  yellow,  like  bakers'  gingerbread, 
and  whose  tops  were  stamped  with  mysterious  letters ; 
long  roots,  as  long  as  the  longest  parsnips,  but  glistening 
white,  like  polished  turnips ;  cherries,  tied  up  in  stingy 
little  bunches  of  ten  or  twelve,  and  swung  in  all  the 
nooks;  small  bunches  of  all  conceivable  green  things, 
from  celery  down  to  timothy  grass,  tied  tight  and 
wedged  into  corners,  or  swung  over  head ;  dried  herbs, 
in  dim  recesses;  pressed  chickens,  on  shelves  (these  were 
the  most  remarkable  things  ;  they  were  semi-transparent, 
thin,  skinny,  and  yellow,  and  looked  almost  more  like 
huge,  flattened  grasshoppers  than  like  chickens ;  but 
chickens  they  were,  and  no  mistake),  —  all  these  were  on 
the  trays,  on  the  sidewalk,  and  on  the  cellar-stairs.  — 
"  H.  H,  "  :  Bits  of  Travel  at  Home. 


DESCRIPTION  419 

State  the  general  impression  given  by  each 
of  these  five  passages  respectively.  In  which 
passage  does  the  writer  proceed  most  systemati- 
cally from  the  larger  details  to  the  smaller  ? 

Exercise  114.  (^Theme.)  Read  again  what  is 
said  about  paragraphing  descriptions  (pp.  101- 
102,  108-109).  Enter  a  light  room  and  note 
your  impressions.  Then  write  a  description  of 
what  you  saw,  and  nothing  else,  proceeding 
from  the  first  impression  to  the  larger  details 
and  then  to  the  smaller. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  In  the  centre,  and  very  far  from  us,  there  rises  a 
soHtary  and  surprising  edifice,  all  blue,  but  of  a  blue  so 
exquisite  and  rare  that  it  seems  to  be  some  old  enchanted 
palace  made  of  turquoise ;  this  is  the  Mosque  of  Omar, 
the  marvel  of  all  Islam.  —  Pierre  Loti  (trans.  Singleton) : 
Turrets,  Towers,  and  Temples. 

2.  The  vast  [Japanese]  temple  [o"f  Nikko]  is  entirely 
red,  and  blood-red ;  an  enormous  black  and  gold  roof 
turned  up  at  the  corners,  seems  to  crush  it  with  its 
weight.  —  Ihid. 

3.  When  we  look  at  the  [Milan]  Cathedral  from  the 
square,  the  effect  is  ravishing :  the  whiteness  of  the  mar- 
ble, standing  out  from  the  blue  of  the  sky,  strikes  you 
first ;  one  would  say  that  an  immense  piece  of  silver  lace 
had  been  placed  against  a  background  of  lapis  lazuli. 
This  is  the  first  impression,  and  it  will  also  be  the 
last  memory.  —  Gautier  :  Ibid. 

4.  The  abbey  was  in  those  days  a  great  affair;  as  my 


420  DESCRIPTIOJSr 

companion  said,  it  sprawled  all  over  the  place.  —  Henry 
James  :  Portraits  of  Places. 

5.  [The  church]  was  very  big  and  massive,  and,  hidden 
away  in  the  fields,  it  had  a  kind  of  lonely  grandeur;  there 
was  nothing  in  particular  near  it  but  its  out-of-the-world 
little  parsonage.  —  Ibid. 

6.  The  density  of  the  sculptures,  the  immense  scale 
of  the  images,  detract  at  first  .  .  .  from  the  impressive- 
ness  of  the  cathedral  of  Rheims ;  the  absence  of  large  sur- 
faces, of  ascending  lines,  deceives  you  as  to  the  elevation 
of  the  front,  and  the  dimensions  of  some  of  the  upper 
statues  bring  them  unduly  near  the  eye.  But  little  by 
little  you  perceive  that  this  great  figured  and  storied 
screen  has  a  mass  proportionate  to  its  detail,  and  that  it 
is  the  grandest  part  of  a  structure  which,  as  a  whole,  is 
one  of  the  noblest  works  of  man's  hands.  —  Ibid. 

7.  Beyond  those  troops  of  ordered  arches  there  rises  a 
vision  out  of  the  earth,  and  all  the  great  square  seems  to 
have  opened  from  it  in  a  kind  of  awe,  that  we  may  see  it 
far  away ;  —  a  multitude  of  pillars  and  white  domes, 
clustered  into  a  long,  low  pyramid  of  coloured  light ;  a 
treasure-heap,  it  seems,  partly  of  gold,  and  partly  of  opal 
and  mother-of-pearl,  hollowed  beneath  into  five  great 
vaulted  porches,  ceiled  with  fair  mosaic,  and  beset  with 
sculpture  of  alabaster^  clear  as  amber  and  delicate  as 
ivory.  —  Ruskin  :  The  Stones  of  Venice.  [St.  Mark's 
Cathedral.] 

8.  First,  to  cite  several  striking  examples,  assuredly 
there  are  few  more  beautiful  pages  in  architecture  than 
that  facade  [of  Notre  Dame  of  Paris],  exhibiting  the 
three  deeply  dug  porches  with  their  pointed  arches ;  the 
plinth,  embroidered  and  indented  with  twenty-eight  royal 
niches ;  the  immense  central  rose-window,  flanked  by  its 
two  lateral  windows,  like  the  priest  by  his  deacon  and 
sub-deacon;    the  high  and  frail  gallery  of  open-worked 


DESCRIPTION  421 

arches,  supporting  on  its  delicate  columns  a  heavy  plat- 
form ;  and,  lastly,  the  two  dark  and  massive  towers,  with 
their  slated  pent-houses.  These  harmonious  parts  of  a 
magnificent  whole,  superimposed  in  five  gigantic  stages 
and  presenting,  with  their  innumerable  details  of  statuary, 
sculpture,  and  carving,  an  overwhelming  yet  not  perplex- 
ing mass,  combine  in  producing  a  calm  grandeur.  —  Hugo 
(trans.  Singleton)  :   Turrets,  Towers,  and  Temples. 

9.  Perhaps  the  best  way  to  form  sonie  dim  conception 
of  it  [the  Cathedral  of  Genoa]  is  to  fancy  a  little  casket, 
inlai4  inside  with  precious  stones,  so  that  there  shall  not 
a  hair's-breadth  be  left  unprecious-stoned,  and  then  to 
conceive  this  little  bit  of  a  casket  increased  to  the  mag- 
nitude of  a  great  church,  without  losing  anything  of  the 
excessive  glory  that  was  compressed  into  its  original 
small  compass,  but  all  its  pretty  lustre  made  sublime  by 
the  consequent  immensity.  —  Haw^thorne  :  French  and 
Italian  Note  Books. 

10.  When  one  has  fairly  tasted  of  the  pleasure  of  cathe- 
dral-hunting, the  approach  to  each  new  shrine  gives  a  pecu- 
liarly ageeable  zest  to  one's  curiosity.  You  are  making 
a  collection  of  great  impressions,  and  I  think  the  process 
is  in  no  case  so  delightful  as  applied  to  cathedrals.  Going 
from  one  fine  picture  to  another  is  certainly  good;  but 
the  fine  pictures  of  the  w^orld  are  terribly  numerous,  and 
they  have  a  troublesome  way  of  crowding  and  jostling 
each  other  in  the  memory.  The  number  of  cathedrals  is 
small,  and  the  mass  and  presence  of  each  specimen  is 
great,  so  that,  as  they  rise  in  the  mind  in  individual 
majesty,  they  dwarf  all  common  impressions.  They 
form,  indeed,  but  a  gallery  of  vaster  pictures ;  for,  when 
time  has  dulled  the  recollection  of  details,  you  retain  a 
single  broad  image  of  the  vast  gray  edifice,  with  its 
towers,  its  tone  of  color,  and  its  still,  green  precinct. 
—  Hb:nry  James  :  Transatlantic  Sketches. 


422  BESCBIPTION 

Give  from  memory  the  general  impressions 
of  color  and  form  produced  upon  Loti,  Gautier, 
James,  Ruskin,  Hugo,  Hawthorne  by  particular 
houses  of  worship. 

Which  of  the  passages  seems  to  you  written 
in  a  style  too  elaborate  for  a  student  to  imitate 
profitably  ?  Select  words  and  expressions  which 
would  have  been  in  good  taste  in  the  themes  of 
a  student.  Look  up  the  exact  meaning  of  hapis 
lazuli.,  screen^  plinth^  rose-window^  pent-house. 

Exercise  115.  (^Theme.)  Study  carefully 
the  exterior  of  a  beautiful  church,  or  a  good 
picture  of  such  an  exterior.  Colored  pictures 
that  are  accurate  in  color  are  hard  to  find, 
but  good  "  half-tone "  cuts  of  all  the  great 
cathedrals  and  temples  of  the  world  can  be  had 
for  a  song,  or  can  be  found  in  books  and  maga- 
zines. Write  a  description  of  the  church  chosen, 
giving  first  the  general  impression,  then  the 
details.  Let  the  impression  be  your  own ;  use 
any  comparisons  or  figures  that  came  naturally 
to  your  mind,  and  are  in  good  taste  ;  word  the 
impression  in  the  best  words  you  can  command, 
but  be  on  your  guard  against  fine  writing  ; 
do  not  talk  about  "frozen  music,"  or  "poems 
in  stone."     In  describing  the  details,  use  com- 


DESCRIPTION  423 

parisons  if  they  suggest  themselves,  and  employ 
architectural  terms  accurately.  The  article 
architecture  in  a  good  encyclopaedia  will  supply 
these  in  abundance. 

This  task  will  repay  all  the  time  spent  on  it. 
How  carelessly  most  of  us  observe  buildings  — 
and  therefore  miss  the  significance  of  different 
architectural  types  —  may  be  inferred  from  the 
following  passage : 

The  value  of  special  knowledge  in  educating  the  mem- 
ory of  the  eye,  is  shown  in  nothing  more  decidedly  than 
in  architecture.  A  professional  architect,  or  even  an 
amateur,  who  has  seriously  studied  good  typical  examples 
of  different  styles,  is  able  to  learn  a  building  by  heart 
when  the  uneducated  observer  will  not  retain  any  distinct 
impression  of  it.  As  this  education  of  the  memory  is  a 
subject  that  interests  me,  I  have  carefully  observed  to 
what  degree  those  who  have  never  studied  architecture 
are  able  to  retain  impressions  of  buildings ;  and,  although 
nothing  can  astonish  me  now,  I  was  at  one  time  amazed 
beyond  all  expression  by  what  seemed  the  incompre- 
hensible inaccuracy  of  the  uneducated  memory  with 
regard  to  buildings  that  had  actually  been  seen  and 
visited.  Provincial  or  foreign  visitors  will  go  to  London 
and  York,  and  afterwards  be  quite  unable  to  say,  of  two 
photographs,  which  is  York  Minster  and  which  is  West- 
minster Abbey.  They  sometimes  even  fail  to  distinguish 
between  the  Houses  of  Parliament  and  Westminster 
Abbey,  or  between  the  National  Gallery  and  the  British 
Museum.  People  will  go  to  visit  a  country  house  of  the 
most  marked  architectural  character,  and  not  be  able  to 


424  DESCRIPTION 

remember  the  most  obvious  characteristics  of  its  struc- 
ture, such  as  whether  the  front  stands  in  a  straight  line 
or  has  advancing  wings,  or  whether  the  windows  are  in 
single  lights  or  divided  by  stone  mullions.  All  that  the 
uneducated  in  architecture  appear  to  be  able  to  retain 
about  buildings  is  the  impression  of  their  size,  and  a  con- 
fused recollection  about  the  richness  of  their  decorations. 
They  generally  remember  that  the  Church  of  Brou  is 
richly  carved,  that  the  inside  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle  is 
painted  and  gilt,  and  that  St.  Peter's  at  Rome  is  big. — 
Hamerton  :  Imagination  in  Landscape  Painting.'^ 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  When  Harry  Esmond  went  away  for  Cambridge, 
little  Frank  ran  alongside  his  horse  as  far  as  the  bridge 
and  there  Harry  stopped  for  a  moment,  and  looked  back 
at  the  house  where  the  best  part  of  his  life  had  been 
passed.  It  lay  before  him  with  its  gray  familiar  towers, 
a  pinnacle  or  two  shining  in  the  sun,  the  buttresses  and 
terrace  walls  casting  great  blue  shades  on  the  grass.  And 
Harry  remembered  all  his  life  after  how  he  saw  his  mis- 
tress at  the  window  looking  out  on  hiin,  in  a  white  robe, 
the  little  Beatrix's  chestnut  curls  resting  at  her  mother's 
side.  — Thackeray  :  Henry  Esmond. 

2.  Presently  the  path  became  plainer,  and  as  I  glanced 
along  its  vista,  my  eye  caught  a  flash  of  bright  yellow 
gleaming  from  something  at  a  distance.     The  object  was 

1  A  day  or  two  before  sending  this  quotation  to  the 
printer,  the  present  writer  bought  a  few  photographs  in  a 
shop  kept  by  an  English  woman.  "  I've  been  in  St.  Paul's 
myself,"  she  said.  "  This  is  it,  is  it  not,  sir  ?  "  and  she  held 
out  a  picture  representing  not  the  broad  masses  and  heavy 
dome  of  the  London  cathedral,  but  that  marble  network  of 
springing  spires  which  has  made  Milan  famous. 


DESCRIPTION  425 

shaped  like  a  chimney,  but  it  seemed  to  spring  from 
the  ground  among  the  scrub-oaks.  The  path  began  to 
descend,  at  first  gradually,  then  more  abruptly,  and  I  dis- 
covered that  there  was  winding  through  the  barrens  ahead 
of  me  a  small  river,  which  a  moment's  consideration  told 
me  must  be  the  Chocorua  River,  on  its  way  to  the  Bear- 
camp.  Beyond  the  river  was  a  small  clearing  and  in  it 
stood  a  red  and  white  house  with  brilliant  yellow  chim- 
neys. — BoLLES:  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp  Water, 

Note  how  scrupulously  the  point  of  view  is 
observed  in  these  two  sketches  of  houses.  In 
one  the  point  of  view  is  kept  stationary,  in  the 
other  it  is  steadily  advanced ;  but  in  both  cases 
no  detail  of  the  house  is  mentioned  but  what 
was  actually  seen  from  the  point  stated. 

Read  aloud  the  following  also  : 

1.  The  house  was  low  and  w^hite,  and  stood  at  the  end 
of  a  small  garden  in  which  there  were  palms.  —  Craw- 
ford:   Via  Crucis. 

2.  The  old  Bowden  house  stood,  low-storied  and  broad- 
roofed,  in  its  green  fields  as  if  it  w^ere  a  motherly  brown 
hen  waiting  for  the  flock  that  came  straying  toward  it 
from  every  direction.  —  Jewett  :  The  Country  of  the 
Pointed  Firs. 

3.  The  house  was  broad  and  clean,  with  a  roof  that 
looked  heavy  on  its  low  walls.  It  was  one  of  the  houses 
that  seem  firm-rooted  in  the  ground,  as  if  they  were  two- 
thirds  below  the  surface,  like  icebergs.  —  Ibid. 

4.  There,  too,  stood  the  Artichoke  Tavern,  clean  and 
white  and  wooden,  a  heap  of  gables  and  windows  all  out 
of  perpendicular  :  a  house  widest  and  biggest  everywhere 


426  DESCRIPTION 

at  the  top,  and  smallest  at  the  ground  floor ;  a  house  that 
seemed  ready  to  topple  into  the  river  at  a  push,  so  far  did 
its  walls  and  galleries  overhang  the  water,  and  so  slender 
were  the  piles  that  supported  them.  —  Arthur  Mor- 
rison :   7^0  London  Town. 

5.  In  one  respect  no  other  building  in  the  world  can  be 
compared  with  the  Pyramids,  and  that  is  in  regard  to  the 
mass  and  weight  of  the  materials  used  in  their  construc- 
tion. If  the  tomb  of  Cheops  w^ere  razed,  a  wall  could  be 
built  with  its  stones  all  around  the  frontiers  of  France. 
If  you  fire  a  good  pistol  from  the  top  of  the  great 
Pyramid  into  the  air,  the  ball  falls  halfway  down  its 
side.  —  Ebers  (trans.  Singleton)  :  Turrets,  Toivers,  and 
Temples. 

6.  We  are  now  drawing  near  the  hotel,  and  I  felt  a 
certain  glow  of  pleasure  in  its  gay  effect  on  the  pretty 
knoll  where  it  stood.  In  its  artless  and  accidental  archi- 
tecture it  was  not  unlike  one  of  our  immense  coastwise 
steamboats.  The  twilight  had  thickened  to  dusk,  and  the 
edifice  was  brilliantly  lighted  with  electrics,  story  above 
story,  which  streamed  into  the  gloom  around  like  the 
lights  of  saloon  and  stateroom.  The  corner  of  wood 
making  into  the  meadow  hid  the  station;  there  was  no 
other  building  in  sight ;  the  hotel  seemed  riding  at  anchor 
on  the  swell  of  a  placid  sea.  —  Howells  :  A  Traveller 
from  Altruria. 

7.  Above  the  sloping  and  crenellated  walls  of  the 
Kremlin  and  among  the  towers  with  their  ornamented 
roofs,  myriads  of  cupolas  and  globular  bell-towers  gleam- 
ing with  metallic  light  seem  to  be  rising  and  falling  like 
bubbles  of  glittering  gold  in  the  strong  blaze  of  light. 
The  white  wall  seems  to  be  a  silver  basket  holding  a  bou- 
quet of  golden  flowers,  and  we  fancy  that  we  are  gazing 
upon  one  of  those  magical  cities  which  the  imagination 
of  the  Arabian  story-tellers  alone  can  build  —  an  archi- 


DESCRIPTION  427 

tectural  crystallization  of  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights  ! 
—  Gautier  (trans.  Singleton)  :  Turrets,  Towers,  and 
Temples. 

8.  Afthe  back  of  a  marvellous  garden  and  with  all  of 
its  whiteness  reflected  in  a  canal  of  dark  water,  sleeping 
inertly  among  thick  masses  of  black  cypress  and  great 
clumps  of  red  flowers,  this  perfect  tomb  [the  Taj  Mahal] 
rises  like  a  calm  apparition.  It  is  a  floating  dream,  an 
aerial  form  without  weight,  so  perfect  is  the  balance  of 
the  lines,  and  so  pale,  so  delicate  the  shadows  that  float 
across  the  virginal  and  translucent  stone.  These  black 
cypresses  which  frame  it,  this  verdure  through  the  open- 
ings of  which  peeps  the  blue  sky,  and  this  sward  bathed 
in  brilliant  sunlight  and  silhouetted  by  the  shadows  of 
the  trees  —  all  these  real  objects  render  more  unreal  the 
delicate  vision,  which  seems  to  melt  away  into  the  light 
of  the  sky.  I  walk  toward  it  along  the  marble  bank  of 
the  dark  canal,  and  the  mausoleum  assumes  sharper  form. 
On  approaching  you  take  more  delight  in  the  surface 
of  the  octagonal  edifice.  This  consists  of  rectangular 
expanses  of  polished  marble  where  the  light  rests  with  a 
soft,  milky  splendour.  One  would  never  imagine  that  so 
simple  a  thing  as  surface  could  be  so  beautiful  when  it  is 
large  and  pure.  The  eye  follows  the  ingenious  and  grace- 
ful scrolls  of  great  flowers,  flowers  of  onyx  and  turquoise, 
incrusted  with  perfect  smoothness,  the  harmony  of  the 
delicate  carving,  the  marble  lace-work,  the  balustrades 
of  a  thousand  perforations,  —  the  infinite  display  of  sim- 
plicity and  decoration.  —  Andre  Chevrillon  :  Ihid, 
(adapted). 

9.  One  of  the  best  modern  recent  public  buildings  I 
have  seen  is  the  new  Public  Library  at  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts. The  design  was  broad  and  simple  ;  of  more  or 
less  Lombardic  origin  ;  a  long,  low-pitched  roof,  a  fa9ade 
of  white  stone,  enclosing  a  court,  with  a  range  of  round- 


428  DESCRIPTION 

headed  windows  ;  the  arms  of  the  city  designed  by  a  good 
sculptor  over  the  porch,  and  above  the  windows  a  series 
of  the  symbolical  marks  of  the  famous  printers  —  Aldus, 
Caxton,  and  so  on  —  in  a  kind  of  black  inlay  in  d.rcles.  — 
Walter  Crane,  in  Art  and  Life. 

10.  The  Highland  Lighthouse,  where  we  were  staying, 
is  a  substantial-looking  building  of  brick,  painted  white, 
and  surmounted  by  an  iron  cap.  Attached  to  it  is  the 
dwelling  of  the  keeper,  one  story  high,  also  of  brick,  and 
built  by  government.  As  we  were  going  to  spend  the 
night  in  a  lighthouse,  we  wished  to  make  the  most  of  so 
novel  an  experience,  and  therefore  told  our  host  that  we 
would  like  to  accompany  him  when  he  went  to  light  up. 
At  rather  early  candle-light  he  lighted  a  small  Japan 
lamp,  allowing  it  to  smoke  rather  more  than  we  like  on 
ordinary  occasions,  and  told  us  to  follow  him.  He  led 
the  way  first  through  his  bedroom,  which  was  placed 
nearest  to  the  lighthouse,  and  then  through  a  long,  nar- 
row, covered  passage-way,  between  whitewashed  walls  like 
a  prison  entry,  into  the  lower  part  of  the  lighthouse,  where 
many  great  butts  of  oil  were  arranged  around ;  thence  we 
ascended  by  a  winding  and  open  iron  stairway,  with  a 
steadily  increasing  scent  of  oil  and  lamp-smoke,  to  a  trap- 
door in  an  iron  floor,  and  through  this  into  the  lantern. 
It  was  a  neat  building,  with  everything  in  apple-pie  order, 
and  no  danger  of  anything  rusting  there  for  want  of  oil. 
The  light  consisted  of  fifteen  argand  lamps,  placed  within 
smooth  concave  reflectors  twenty-one  inches  in  diameter, 
and  arranged  in  two  horizontal  circles  one  above  the 
other,  facing  every  way  excepting  directly  down  the  Cape, 
These  were  surrounded,  at  a  distance  of  two  or  three  feet, 
by  large  plate-glass  windows,  which  defied  the  storms, 
with  iron  sashes,  on  which  rested  the  iron  cap.  All  the 
iron  work  except  the  floor  was  painted  white.  And  thus 
the  lighthouse  was  completed.     We  walked  slowly  round 


DESCRIPTION  429 

in  that  narrow  space  as  the  keeper  lighted  each  lamp  in 
succession,  conversing  with  him  at  the  same  moment  that 
many  a  sailor  on  the  deep  witnessed  the  lighting  of  the 
Highland  Light.  —  Thoreau  :  Cape  Cod. 

What  kinds  of  houses  are  described  in  the 
preceding  selections  ?  Which  are  described  im- 
pressionistically,  which  in  literal  detail?  In 
which  is  the  point  of  view  fixed?  In  which 
does  it  advance  ?  Enumerate  the  various  com- 
parisons used  to  make  the  size  or  general 
appearance  of  a  building  clear.  Which  of 
these  comparisons  suggest  life  or  motion  ? 
Select  terms  of  description  that  would  have 
been  appropriate  in  a  student's  theme.  Point 
out  beautiful  passages  which,  if  too  closely 
imitated,  would  probably  lead  the  student  into 
high-flown  diction. 

Exercise  116.  (Theme.}  Study  some  act- 
ual dwelling  house,  one  as  interesting  and 
beautiful  as  you  can  find,  and  describe  it  in 
general  and  in  detail.  Use  comparisons,  espe- 
cially such  as  give  life  and  motion,  but  avoid 
repeating  any  found  above.  In  describing  de- 
tails, be  as  precise  and  intelligible  as  Thoreau 
in  selection  10.  Consult  the  encyclopaedia  for 
architectural  terms. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 


430  BESCBIPTION 

1.  As  he  drew  rein  on  the  crest  of  a  low  hill,  the  deso- 
late brown  waste  of  the  Campagna  stretched  behind  him 
mile  upon  mile  to  northward,  toward  the  impenetrable 
forests  of  Viterbo,  and  Rome  was  at  last  before  him.  .  .  . 
From  the  point  where  Gilbert  halted,  Rome  seemed  but 
a  lone  brown  ruin.  —  Crawford  :   Via  Crucis. 

2.  Salt  Lake  City  lies  close  at  the  base  of  the  Wasatch 
range,  so  close  that,  as  you  first  see  the  city  from  the  cars, 
you  can  fancy  it  a  walled  town,  walled  on  one  side  by  the 
mountains,  with  a  gate  in  every  canon.  —  *'H.  H." :  Bits 
of  Travel  at  Home. 

3.  By  and  by,  we  had  a  distant  glimpse  of  Florence, 
showing  its  great  dome  and  some  of  its  towers  out  of  a 
sidelong  valley,  as  if  we  were  between  two  great  waves  of 
the  tunmltuous  sea  of  hills  ;  while,  far  beyond,  rose  in  the 
distance  the  blue  peaks  of  three  or  four  of  the  Apennines, 
just  on  the  remote  horizon.  There  being  a  haziness  in 
the  air,  Florence  was  little  more  distinct  to  us  than  the 
celestial  city  was  to  Christian  and  Hopeful,  when  they 
spied  at  it  from  the  Delectable  Mountains. — Hawthorne  : 
French  and  Italian  Note  Books. 

4.  The  little  village  of  Bonchurch  is  buried  in  the 
most  elaborate  verdure,  muffled  in  the  smoothest  lawns 
and  the  densest  shrubbery.  ...  It  is  like  a  model  village 
in  imitative  substances,  kept  in  a  big  glass  case ;  the  turf 
might  be  of  green  velvet  and  the  foliage  of  cut  paper.  — 
Henry  James:  Portraits  of  Places. 

5.  Laon  is  full  of  history,  and  the  place,  as  you  ap- 
proach it,  reminds  you  of  a  quaint  woodcut  in  the  text  of 
an  ancient  folio.  Out  of  the  midst  of  a  smiling  plain 
rises  a  goodly  mountain,  and  on  the  top  of  the  mountain 
is  perched  the  old  feudal  commune,  from  the  centre  of 
which  springs,  with  infinite  majesty,  the  many-towered 
cathedral.  —  Ibid. 

6.  There  Loughton  tumbled  about  its  green  hills,  beset 


DESCRIPTION  431 

with  dusky  trees,  like  a  spilt  boxful  of  toys,  with  the 
sad-coloured  forests  making  the  horizon  line  behind  it.  — 
Arthur  Morrison  :   To  London  Town. 

7.  There  was  a  schooner  with  all  sails  set  coming  down 
the  bay  from  a  white  village  that  was  sprinkled  on  the 
shore,  and  there  were  many  sailboats  flitting  about. — 
Jewett  :   The  Country  of  the  Pointed  Firs. 

8.  The  little  town,  with  the  tall  masts  of  its  disabled 
schooners  in  the  inner  bay,  stood  high  above  the  flat  sea 
for  a  few  minutes,  then  it  sank  back  into  the  uniformity 
of  the  coast,  and  became  indistinguishable  from  the  other 
towns  that  looked  as  if  they  were  crumbled  on  the  furzy- 
green  stoniness  of  the  shore.  —  Ibid. 

9.  Biarritz  scrambles  over  two  or  three  steep  hills, 
directly  above  the  sea,  in  a  promiscuous,  many-colored, 
noisy  fashion.  —  Henry  James:  Portraits  of  Places. 

10.  There  was  something  about  the  coast  town  of 
Dunnet  which  made  it  seem  more  attractive  than  other 
maritime  villages  of  eastern  Maine.  Perhaps  it  was  the 
simple  fact  of  acquaintance  with  that  neighborhood  which 
made  it  so  attaching,  and  gave  such  interest  to  the  rocky 
shore  and  dark  woods,  and  the  few  houses  which  seemed 
to  be  securely  wedged  and  tree-nailed  in  among  the  ledges 
by  the  Landing.  —  Jewett  :  The  Country  of  the  Pointed 
Firs. 

11.  Coketown,  in  which  Messrs.  Bounderby  and  Grad- 
grind  now  walked,  was  a  triumph  of  fact;  it  had  no 
greater  taint  of  fancy  in  it  than  Mrs.  Gradgrind  herself. 
Let  us  strike  the  key-note,  Coketown,  before  pursuing  our 
tune. 

It  was  a  town  of  red  brick,  or  of  brick  that  would  have 
been  red  if  the  smoke  and  ashes  had  allowed  it;  but,  as 
matters  stood,  it  was  a  town  of  unnatural  red  and  black, 
like  the  painted  face  of  a  savage.  It  was  a  town  of 
machinery  and  tall  chimneys,  out  of  which  interminable 


432  DESCBIPTIOJSr 

serpents  of  smoke  trailed  themselves  forever  and  ever,  and 
never  get  uncoiled.  It  had  a  black  canal  in  it,  and  a  river 
that  run  purple  with  ill-smelling  dye,  and  vast  piles  of 
building  full  of  windows  where  there  was  a  rattling  and  a 
trembling  all  day  long,  and  where  the  piston  of  the  steam- 
engine  worked  monotonously  up  and  down,  like  the  head 
of  an  elephant  in  a  state  of  melancholy  madness.  It  con- 
tained several  large  streets  all  very  like  one  another,  and 
many  small  streets  still  more  like  one  another,  inhabited 
by  people  equally  like  one  another,  who  all  went  in  and 
out  at  the  same  hours,  with  the  same  sound  upon  the 
same  pavements,  to  do  the  same  work,  and  to  whom  every 
day  was  the  same  as  yesterday  and  to-morrow,  and  every 
year  the  counterpart  of  the  last  and  the  next.  —  Dickens  : 
Hard  Times. 

Enumerate  from  memory  the  general  impres- 
sions produced  by  the  eleven  towns  on  the 
authors  above  quoted.  What  comparisons  are 
used  that  suggest  life  or  motion?  Which  de- 
scription seems  to  you  the  most  beautiful? 
Why? 

Exercise  117.  (^Theme.)  Write  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  general  look  of  your  own  town  as  it 
appears  from  a  distance.  Do  not  attempt  to 
sketch  its  ground-plan.  Use  such  comparisons 
as  will  convey  your  own  impressions. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  In  the  very  middle  of  the  Midlands  there  is  a 
manufacturing  town  situated  on  the  crest  of  a  hill  and 


DESCRIPTION  433 

crowned  by  a  beautiful  old  church.  In  the  churchyard 
stands  a  strange  pillar,  the  origin  whereof  is  lost  in 
antiquity  —  it  may  be  the  shaft  of  an  early  Christian 
cross,  or  it  may  be  the  remains  of  a  Druidical  temple ; 
and  just  outside  the  lych-gates  is  the  King's  Square, 
with  its  wide  pavements  and  quaint  old  shops  —  shops 
which  have  remained  in  the  same  families  of  worthy 
burgesses  from  generation  to  generation.  The  streets 
slope  away  from  the  square,  and  gradually  die  away  into 
the  country,  which  is  bounded  by  a  distant  rim  of  low 
blue  hills.  Such  is  the  town  of  Silverhampton.  —  Ellen 
Thorneycroft  Fow^ler  :  A  Double  Thread, 

2.  Two  points  ran  out  as  the  horns  of  the  crescent, 
one  of  which  —  the  one  to  the  westward  —  was  low  and 
sandy,  and  is  that  to  which  vessels  are  obliged  to  give  a 
wide  berth  when  running  out  for  a  southeaster ;  the  other 
is  high,  bold,  and  well-wooded,  and,  we  were  told,  has  a 
mission  upon  it  called  St.  Buenaventura,  from  which  the 
point  is  named.  In  the  middle  of  this  crescent,  directly 
opposite  the  anchoring  ground,  lie  the  mission  and  town 
of  Santa  Barbara,  on  a  low,  flat  plain,  but  little  above 
the  level  of  the  sea,  covered  with  grass,  though  entirely 
without  trees,  and  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  an 
amphitheatre  of  mountains,  which  slant  off  to  the  dis- 
tance of  fifteen  or  twenty  miles.  The  mission  stands  a 
little  back  of  the  town,  and  is  a  large  building,  or  rather 
collection  of  buildings,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  a  high 
tower,  with  a  belf ly  of  five  bells ;  and  the  whole,  being 
plastered,  makes  quite  a  show  at  a  distance,  and  is  the 
mark  by  which  vessels  come  to  anchor.  The  town  lies  a 
little  nearer  to  the  beach — about  half  a  mile  from  it  — 
and  is  composed  of  one-story  houses  built  of  brown  clay 
—  some  of  them  plastered  —  with  red  tiles  on  the  roofs. 
I  should  judge  that  there  were  about  an  hundred  of 
them ;  and  in  the  midst  of  them  stands  the  Presidio,  or 
2f 


434  DESCRIPTION 

fort,  built  of  the  same  materials,  and  apparently  but  little 
stronger.  The  town  is  certainly  finely  situated,  with  a 
Bay  in  front,  and  an  amphitheatre  of  hills  behind.  -— 
Dana  :   Two  Years  before  the  Mast. 

3.  The  site  of  Cleveland  is  a  plateau,  sloping  gently 
from  the  high  bank  of  the  lake  to  an  elevation  of  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  This  plain  is  cut 
into  two  unequal  divisions,  the  larger  lying  on  the  east, 
by  the  Cuyahoga.  —  Johnson's  Encyclopcedia. 

4.  So  he  set  to  work  to  ransack  the  city.  He  first 
studied  the  streets.  A  hack  driver  gave  him  a  clue  to 
the  labyrinth. 

"Now  here's  Washington  Street  —  see?  Well,  dat's 
de  backbone  o'  de  hull  blame  town  —  see?  An'  Tre- 
mont  is  jist  like  it.  Now  w'en  you  start  out  to  look  f'r 
anny  place,  jist  figger  out  whedder  it's  on  de  hind-leg  'r 
de  shoulde'r  —  see?" 

Reeves  saw.  This  luminous  description  of  Boston's  ^ 
anatomy  was  worth  more  as  a  starter  than  any  map.  — 
Garland  :  Jason  Edwards. 

5.  Arcachon  is  a  comic-opera  village,  with  its  pier  of 
red,  yellow,  and  green  roofs  perked  up  like  Chinese 
bells,  a  league  of  ground  covered  with  three  lines  of 
cottages,  painted  chalets  with  balconies  running  round 
them,  pointed  pavilions,  Gothic  turrets,  more  roofs  elab- 
orate wdth  painted  wood.  —  Taine  :  Journeys  through 
France. 

Exercise  118.  (^Theme,}  Write  a  descrip- 
tion of  your  own  town,  giving  (1)  its  location 
with  regard  to  the  surrounding  country,  (2)  the 

1  For  criticism  of  this  use  of  the  possessive,  see  Appen- 
dix A. 


DESCRIPTION  435 

general  ground-plan,  or  ''  fundamental  image  '* 
—  as  in  examples  3,  4,  and  6,  above.  Let  the 
tone  of  diction  used  be  plain  and  simple,  like 
that  of  example  3. 

Note  again  that  a  careful  writer  does  not 
attempt  to  describe  from  a  given  point  that 
which  cannot  be  seen  from  the  point.  This 
time  (below),  flowers,  mountains,  and  a  valley 
landscape  are  being  viewed. 

1.  The  few  wind-bent  trees  on  Shell-heap  Island  were 
mostly  dead  and  gray,  but  there  were  some  low-growing 
bushes,  and  a  stripe  of  light  green  ran  along  just  above 
the  shore,  which  I  knew  to  be  wild  morning-glories. — 
Jewett  :   The  Country  of  the  Pointed  Firs. 

2.  Paugus,  Passaconaway,  and  Whiteface  were  quite 
clearly  outlined  against  each  other  and  the  sky.  They 
seemed  very  near,  however,  so  that  it  was  easier  for  me 
to  imagine  myself  on  a  lonely  rock  in  the  ocean,  with 
huge  weaves  about  to  overwhelm  me,  than  to  make  those 
combing  waves  stand  back  three,  eight,  twelve  miles 
and  become  spruce-covered  mountains.  —  Bolles  :  At  the 
North  of  Bearcamp  Water. 

3.  It  was  a  gay  world  up  here  among  the  tossing 
branches.  Across  the  river,  on  the  first  terrace  of  the 
hill,  were  weather-beaten  farm-houses,  amid  apple 
orchards  and  cornfields.  Above  these  rose  the  wooded 
dome  of  Mount  Peak,  a  thousand  feet  above  the  river, 
and  beyond  that  to  the  left  the  road  wound  up  to  high 
and  lonesome  towns  on  a  plateau  stretching  to  unknown 
regions  in  the  south.  There  was  no  bar  to  the  imagina- 
tion in  that  direction.     What  a  gracious  valley,  what 


436  DESCRIPTION 

graceful  slopes,  what  a  mass  of  color  bathing  this  lovely 
summer  landscape !  —  Warner  :  That  Fortune. 

Read  now  the  following: 

1.  A  giant  cradle,  indeed,  —  nine  miles  long  and  three 
wide;  Pike's  Peak  for  its  foot  and  a  range  of  battle- 
mented  mountains  for  its  head ;  lying,  as  it  should,  due 
north  and  south,  with  high  sides  sloping  up  to  the  east 
and  up  to  the  west  to  meet  the  gracious  canopy  of  sky. 
—  <'  H.  H."  :  Bits  of  Travel  at  Home. 

2.  In  the  background  is  a  long  line  of  plain,  or  of 
gently  rising  heights,  tawny  or  tinged  with  blue,  fairly 
deep  in  tone,  as  rich  as  in  Decamps  ^ ;  and  in  this  vast 
obscure  border  there  are  little  white  specks  of  scattered 
houses.     Further  away  still  are  the  round  backs  of  the 

.  hills,  the  curving  saddle  of  pale  violet,  and  the  immeasur- 
able sky,  flecked  with  downy  clouds  beneath  the  after- 
noon sun.  It  is  all  on  a  grand  scale ;  there  are  but  three 
or  four  lines,  all  architectural  in  their  effect.  It  is  like 
an  amphitheatre  of  Poussin,i  but  there  is  colour  and 
richness  beyond  the  reach  of  Poussin.  —  Taine  :  Jour- 
neys through  France. 

3.  I  said  that  the  plateau  in  which  the  rift  is  made 
was  amphitheatre-like.  The  phrase  is  at  once  a  good 
and  a  bad  one,  —  bad  because  it  is  hardly  possible  for 
the  mind  to  conceive  of  the  amphitheatre  shape  without 
a  good  deal  of  limitation  in  size.  Do  what  we  will,  the 
Coliseum  is  apt  to  rise  before  us  whenever  we  use  the 
word  amphitheatre.  To  picture  to  one's  self  an  amphi- 
theatre whose  central  space  shall  be  measured  by  tens, 
twenties,  and  thirties  of  miles,  shall  be  varied  by  meadow 
parks  and  the  forests  which  enclose  the  parks,  and  whose 
circling  tiers  of  seats  shall  be  mountain  ranges,  rising 

1  Decamps,  Poussin,  French  painters. 


DESCRIPTION  437 

higher  and  higher,  until  the  highest,  dazzling  white  with 
snow,  seem  to  cleave  the  sky,  rather  than  to  rest  against 
it,  —  this  is  not  easy.  Yet  it  is  precisely  such  an  amphi- 
theatre as  this  that  we  are  in  as  we  approach  the  Grand 
Canyon  of  the  Arkansas.  From  every  hill-summit  that 
is  gained  the  amphitheatre  effect  is  more  and  more  strik- 
ing, until  at  last  its  tiers  of  mountain  walls  are  in  full 
view,  —  south,  west,  north,  and  east.  —  "  H.  H."  :  Bits  of 
Travel  at  Home. 

What  fundamental  images  are  used  in  Mrs. 
Jackson's  ('•  H.  H.'s")  descriptions  of  a  valley 
and  a  canyon  ?  What  in  Taine's  description  of 
a  scene  looking  back  from  the  seashore  ? 

Exercise  119.  {Theme.^  Write  a  descrip- 
tion of  a  landscape,  as  seen  from  a  fixed  point 
of  view.  Describe  only  what  can  be  seen. 
Give  the  main  lines  of  the  picture  by  some 
simple  comparison,  and  then  speak  of  the 
colors. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Tuesday,  November  25,  when  at  daylight  we  saw 
the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  directly  ahead,  rising  like 
a  deep  blue  cloud  out  of  the  sea.  We  were  then  probably 
nearly  seventy  miles  from  it ;  and  so  high  and  so  blue  did 
it  appear,  that  I  mistook  it  for  a  cloud,  resting  over  the 
island,  and  looked  for  the  island  under  it,  until  it  gradu- 
ally turned  to  a  deader  and  greener  color,  and  I  could 
mark  the  inequalities  upon  its  surface.  At  length  we 
could  distinguish  trees  and  rocks ;  and  by  the  afternoon 


438  DESCRIPTION 

this  beautiful  island  lay  fairly  before  us,  and  we  directed 
our  course  to  the  only  harbor.  —  Dana  :  Ttvo  Years 
before  the  Mast. 

2.  A  strange  mountain  appeared  in  the  distance,  belted 
about  its  breast  with  a  zone  of  blue.  Was  it  a  blue  cloud, 
a  blue  horizontal  bar  of  the  air  that  Titian  breathed  in 
youth,  seen  now  far  away,  which  mortal  might  never 
breathe  again  ?  Was  it  a  mirage  —  a  meteor?  Would  it 
stay  to  be  approached? — (ten  miles  of  winding  road  yet 
between  them  and  the  foot  of  this  mountain)  —  such  ques- 
tioning had  they  concerning  it.  My  keen-sighted  friend, 
alone,  maintained  it  to  be  substantial;  —  whatever  it 
might  be  it  was  not  air,  and  would  not  vanish.  The  ten 
miles  of  road  were  overpassed,  the  carriage  left,  the  moun- 
tain climbed.  It  stayed  patiently,  expanding  still  into 
richer  breadth  and  heavenlier  glow  —  a  belt  of  gentians. — 

RUSKIN. 

3.  On  we  went,  the  lightning  flashes  now  revealing 
Kafir  huts,  or  herds  of  goats  huddled  together  on  the  lee 
side  of  dreary  kopjes  ftr  some  farm-house,  around  which 
the  eucalyptus  trees  were  creaking  and  moaning  as  they 
threshed  about  in  the  storm.  Leaving  the  horses  to  find 
their  way  again,  we  began  slowly  to  descend.  During 
one  of  the  vivid  flashes  of  lightning  we  could  see  below 
in  the  valley  what  appeared  like  a  huge  serpent,  but 
really  was  a  commando.  —  E.  E.  Easton,  in  Harper's 
Magazine. 

4.  Then  it  is  that,  walking  along  through  the  groves 
of  pinon-trees  and  seeing  so  far  and  so  clear  in  all  ways, 
one  wonders  where  can  be  the  canyon.  This  is  a  broad 
mountain-top  plateau.  It  seems  as  if  one  might  journey 
across  it  in  any  direction  one  liked,  and  come  sooner  or 
later  to  the  base  of  the  horizon  heights.  Suddenly,  going 
southward,  one  finds  the  trees  scantier,  wider  apart,  ceas- 
ing altogether.     The  stony  ground  becomes  stonier  and 


DESCRIPTION  439 

stonier,  until  only  armed  cactuses  and  thorny  shrubs  keep 
foothold  in  the  confusion  of  rocks.  Then,  looking  south- 
ward, one  sees  a  few  rods  ahead  a  strange  effect  in  the 
air.  There  is  no  precipice  edge  visible  as  yet ;  but  the 
eye  perceives  that  just  beyond  there  is  a  break,  and  there 
against  the  sky  looms  up  a  wall  whose  base  is  out  of 
sight.  It  is  strangely  near,  yet  far.  Between  it  and  the 
ground  you  stand  on  is  a  shimmer  of  inexplicable  lights 
and  reflections.  This  wall  is  the  further  wall  of  the  Great 
Canyon.  A  few  steps  more  and  you  look  in.  You  have 
been  already  for  some  moments  walking  on  ground  which 
was  only  the  surface  of  an  outjutting  promontory  of  the 
nearer  wall.  Twelve  hundred  feet  below  you  roars  the 
Arkansas  Rivei',  pent  up  in  a  channel  so  narrow  that  it 
looks  like  a  brook  one  might  ford.  On  its  narrow  rims 
of  bank  there  are  lying  sticks  of  wood  which  look  like 
fine  kindling  wood.  They  are  heavy  railroad  ties,  floated 
down  from  the  timber-lands  in  the. mountains.  — "H.  H."  : 
Bits  of  Travel  at  Home. 

5.  The  road  was  gradually  drawing  nearer  to  the  foot 
hills.  Instead  of  a  hundred  miles  of  unbroken  mountain 
range,  from  Long's  to  Pike's  Peak,  that  seemed  to  rise 
abruptly  from  the  plain  only  an  hour's  walk  away,  I  began 
to  be  aware  of  the  magnificent  distances  so  strangely  dis- 
guised in  that  clear,  rarefied  air,  and  to  appreciate  alti- 
tudes by  comparison  with  lesser  heights.  The  view  lost 
in  extent,  only  to  gain  in  the  grander  outlines  of  splendid 
detail.  And  with  the  nearer  view  there  grew  clear  and 
marvellous  coloring  in  the  exposed  strata  and  the  fantastic 
shapes  which  mark  the  play  of  erosion  among  the  rocks. 
There  were  deep  saffrons  and  reds  of  every  hue,  from  a 
delicate  flush  to  crimson ;  there  were  browns  and  grays 
without  number,  and  a  soft  cream  color  deepening  to  yel- 
low, and  now  and  then  a  jut  of  rock  that  in  certain  lights 
appeared  milk-white.     To  boundless  variety  in  color  was 


440  DESCRIPTION 

added  a  weird  charm  of  form  with  which  the  imagination 
could  play  endlessly.  Sitting  a  rugged  boulder  with  the 
dainty  poise  of  an  egg  upon  a  conjurer's  finger  would 
appear  a  round-bellied  Hindu  god  in  solid  stone,  and  near 
him,  in  exquisitely  delicate  tracery,  a  flying  buttress  or 
the  tapering  spire  of  a  cathedral,  while  crowning  some 
sheer  height  in  all  the  glory  of  gorgeous  color  would  rise 
the  grim  towers  and  battlements  of  a  mediaeval  fortress. 
—  Wyckoff  :   The  Workers. 

In  these  five  landscapes  we  have  what  is 
called  the  traveler's  point  of  view.  A  scene  is 
described  as  the  traveler  approaches  it  or 
recedes  from  it  —  preferably  as  he  approaches, 
for  then  the  general  impression  is  given  first. 
This  method  is  particularly  adapted  to  describ- 
ing a  landscape  fully,  for  the  details  are  made 
to  appear  in  the  actual  order  of  experience. 

Exercise  120.  (Theme.^  Choose  an  actual 
landscape,  and  approach  from  a  more  remote  to 
a  nearer  point  of  view.  Take  notes  of  your 
impressions  at  each  successive  step,  and  after- 
ward work  these  up  into  a  complete  theme. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Now  we  began  to  climb  and  to  enter  upon  forests,  — 
pines  and  firs  and  cedars.  It  seemed  as  if  the  whole 
world  had  become  forest,  we  could  see  off  so  far  through 
the  vistas  between  the  tall,  straight,  branchless  trunks. 
The  great  sugar  pines  were  from  one  hundred  to  two 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  high,  and  their  lowest  branches 


DESCRIPTION  441 

were  sixty  to  eighty  feet  from  the  ground.  The  cedars 
and  firs  and  yellow  pines  were  not  much  shorter.  The 
grandeur  of  these  innumerable  colonnades  cannot  be  con- 
ceived. It  can  hardly  be  realized,  even  while  they  are 
majestically  opening,  receding,  closing,  in  your  very  sight. 
Sometimes  a  sunbeam  will  strike  on  a  point  so  many  rods 
away,  down  one  of  these  dark  aisles,  that  it  is  impossible 
to  believe  it  sunlight  at  all.  Sometimes,  through  a  break 
in  the  tree-tops,  will  gleam  snowy  peaks  of  Sierras,  hun- 
dreds of  miles  away ;  but  the  path  to  their  summits  will 
seem  to  lead  straight  through  these  columns  of  vivid 
green.  Perspective  becomes  transfiguration,  miracle  when 
it  deals  with  such  distance,  such  color,  and  such  giant 
size.  It  would  not  have  astonished  me  at  any  moment, 
as  I  gazed  reverently  out  into  these  measureless  cloisters, 
to  have  seen  beings  of  Titanic  stature  moving  slowly 
along,  chanting  service  and  swinging  incense  in  some 
supernatural  worship.  —  '*  H.  H." :  Bits  of  Travel  at  Home. 
2.  Like  children  at  sight  of  a  merry  juggler's  show, 
we  first  shouted  with  delight,  then  drew  in  long,  silent 
breaths,  with  bewilderment  too  like  awe  to  find  easy 
shape  in  speech.  O  whence  I  O  who !  How  had  their 
feet  passed  by  so  noiselessly?  Who  had  touched  with 
this  enchantment  every  leaf  of  every  tree  which  stood 
within  our  sight  ?  Every  maple  tree  blazed  at  top  with 
tint  of  scarlet  or  cherry  or  orange  or  pale  yellow.  Every 
ash  tree  had  turned  from  green  to  dark  purple  or  to  pale 
straw-color.  Every  birch  tree  shimmered  and  quivered  in 
the  sun,  as  if  gold-pieces  were  strung  along  its  branches  : 
basswoods  were  flecked  with  white  ;  beeches  were  brown 
and  yellow,  poplars  were  marked  and  spotted  with  ver- 
milion ;  sumachs  had  become  ladders,  and  bars,  and 
fringes  of  fire;  not  a  single  tree  was  left  of  solid,  dark 
green,  except  the  pines  and  the  larches  and  the  firs ;  and 
they  also  seemed  to  have  shared  in  the  transformation, 


442  DESCRIPTION 

looking  darker  and  greener  than  ever,  as  a  setting  for 
these  masses  of  flashing  color.  Single  trees  in  fields,  near 
and  far,  looked  like  great  hewn  jewels ;  with  light  behind 
them,  the  tint  flickered  and  waved  as  it  does  in  trans- 
parent stones  held  up  to  the  sun.  When  the  wind  shook 
them,  it  was  like  nothing  but  the  tremulousness  of  dis- 
tant seas  burning  under  sunset.  The  same  trees,  filling 
in  by  tens  of  thousands  in  spaces  of  the  forests,  looked 
not  like  anything  which  we  know  and  name  as  gem,  but 
as  one  could  fancy  mid-air  spaces  might  be  and  look  in 
some  supernatural  realm  whence  the  souls  of  ruby  and 
amethyst  and  topaz  come  and  go,  taking  for  a  little  while 
the  dusty  shapes  of  small  stones  on  earth.  —  Ibid. 

3.  No  language  can  give  an  idea  of  the  beauty  and 
glory  of  the  trees,  just  at  this  moment.  It  would  be  easy, 
by  a  process  of  word-daubing,  to  set  down  a  confused 
group  of  gorgeous  colors,  like  a  bunch  of  tangled  skeins 
of  bright  silk ;  but  there  is  nothing  of  the  reality  in  the 
glare  which  would  thus  be  produced.  And  yet  the  splen- 
dor both  of  individual  clusters  and  of  whole  scenes  is 
unsurpassable.  The  oaks  are  now  far  advanced  in  their 
change  of  hue ;  and,  in  certain  positions  relatively  to  the 
sun,  they  light  up  and  gleam  with  a  most  magnificent 
deep  gold,  varying  according  as  portions  of  the  foliage 
are  in  shadow  or  sunlight.  On  the  sides  which  receive 
the  direct  rays,  the  effect  is  altogether  rich ;  and  in  other 
points  of  view  it  is  equally  beautiful  if  less  brilliant. 
This  color  of  the  oak  is  more  superb  than  the  lighter 
yellow  of  the  maples  and  walnuts.  The  whole  landscape 
is  now  covered  with  this  indescribable  pomp ;  it  is  dis- 
cerned on  the  uplands  afar  oft' ;  and  Blue  Hill  in  Milton, 
at  the  distance  of  several  miles,  actually  glistens  with ' 
rich,  dark  light,  —  no,  not  glistens,  nor  gleams,  —  but 
perhaps  to  say  glows  subduedly  will  be  a  truer  expres- 
sion for  it.  —  Hawthornp:  :  American  Note  Books. 


DESCRIPTION  443 

The  difficulty  of  describing  the  more  remark- 
able effects  of  nature  appears  in  the  preceding 
passages.  We  can  feel  the  thrill  and  charm 
of  the  exceptionally  beautiful,  but  we  cannot 
easily  word  it.  The  habit  of  looking  at  only 
the  exceptional  beauty  kills  artistic  feeling. 
Hackneyed  repetition  of  what  has  once  been 
said  well  is  all  that  is  left  for  the  over-ambi- 
tioQS  writer  ;  dcAvs  straightway  become  pearls 
and  diamonds,  and  "  rivulets  ripple  blithesomely 
in  the  gladsome  sunlight."  No  wonder  that 
Hawthorne  declared, 

*'  When  God  expressed  himself  in  the  landscape  to 
mankind,  he  did  not  intend  that  it  should  be  translated 
into  any  tongue." 

Exercise  121.  (Theme.)  Choose  an  actual 
wood-interior  that  you  have  seen,  but  not  one 
too  brilliant  with  autumn  foliage.  If  possible, 
visit  it  again,  no  matter  whether  the  weather 
is  dull  or  not.  Then  describe  it  as  you  see  it. 
In  describing  colors,  aim  to  be  as  true  to  the 
"low  "  tones  as  to  the  "high."  Do  not  neglect 
the  grays  and  yellows  and  browns. ^ 

1  No  passages  are  given  describing  sunrises  and  sunsets, 
beyond  the  one  employed  for  another  purpose,  p.  185 ;  for 
the  danger  of  barren  fine  writing  is  very  great  here.  Still, 
v^ith  the  caution  about  low  tones,  describing  a  sunset  is 
admirable  drill  in  color  vocabulary.     For  many  examples  of 


444  DESCRIPTION 

Read  aloud  the  following : 

a.  1.  Beautiful  by  day,  the  shore  is  perhaps  even 
more  beautiful,  certainly  more  impressive,  by  night. 
The  moonlight  silvers  the  tall  cliffs  until  they  look  like 
vast  fortresses  of  marble,  and  the  sand  of  the  beach 
gleams  white  as  winter's  snow.  The  Fairies'  Pathway 
of  moonbeams,  or  as  the  Chinese  call  it,  the  Golden 
Dragon,  twists  and  flashes  upon  the  eastern  water,  the 
dark  pines  stand  in  silent  ranks,  their  tops  spread  against 
the  purple  western  sky,  and  from  the  dividing  line  of 
land  and  sea  comes  that  eternal  surge  of  the  w^ave. — 
J.  C.  Van  Dyke  :  Nature  for  Its  Own  Sake. 

2.  Look  at  the  map  of  Alaska,  and  think  of  all  the 
peninsula  from  Cook  Inlet,  and  all  the  adjacent  islands, 
and  the  long  chain  of  the  Aleutians,  sweeping  nearly 
across  to  Asia,  as  being  covered  with  an  unbroken  car- 
pet of  verdure.  It  must  needs  be  the  main  feature  of 
my  description.  Never  had  I  seen  such  beauty  of  green- 
ness, because  never  before  had  I  seen  it  from  such  a  van- 
tage-ground of  blue  sea.  — John  Burroughs:  Summer 
Holidays  in  Alaska.  {The  Century  Magazine,  August, 
1900.) 

3.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  give  an  idea  of  these  rocky 
shores,  —  how  confusedly  they  are  tossed  together,  lying 
in  all  directions  ;  what  solid  ledges,  what  great  fragments 
thrown  out  from  the  rest.  Often  the  rocks  are  broken, 
square,  and  angular,  so  as  to  form  a  kind  of  staircase; 
though,  for  the  most  part,  such  as  would  require  a  giant 
stride  to  ascend  them. 

Sometimes  a  black  trap-rock  runs  through  the  bed  of 

sane  description  of  sky  effects,  see  Thoreau  :  Autumn,  3, 17, 
90,  112,  152,  214,  259,  811,  327,  330,  345,  388,  429,  433. 
Winter,  23,  38,  40,  127,  155.  Summer,  47,  246»  313,  332, 
362. 


DESCRIPTION  445 

granite :  sometimes  the  sea  has  eaten  this  away,  leaving 
a  long,  irregular  fissure.  In  some  places,  owing  to  the 
same  cause,  perhaps,  there  is  a  great  hollow  place  exca- 
vated into  the  ledge,  and  forming  a  harbor,  into  which 
the  sea  flows ;  and,  while  there  is  foam  and  fury  at  the 
entrance,  it  is  comparatively  calm  within.  Some  parts 
of  the  crag  are  as  much  as  fifty  feet  of  perpendicular 
height,  down  which  you  look  over  a  bare  and  smooth 
descent,  at  the  base  of  which  is  a  shaggy  margin  of  sea- 
weed. But  it  is  vain  to  try  to  express  this  confusion. 
As  much  as  anything  else,  it  seems  as  if  some  of  the 
massive  materials  of  the  world  remained  superfluous,  af- 
ter the  Creator  had  finished,  and  were  carelessly  thrown 
down  here,  where  the  millionth  part  of  them  emerge 
from  the  sea,  and  in  the  course  of  thousands  of  years 
have  become  partially  bestrewn  with  a  little  soil.  —  Haw- 
thorne :  American  Note  Books. 

4.  The  peculiar  charm  of  this  great  westward  expanse 
is  very  difficult  to  define.  It  is  in  an  especial  degree  the 
charm  of  Newport  in  general  —  the  combined  lowness  of 
tone,  as  painters  call  it,  in  all  the  elements  of  terra  fir  ma, 
and  the  extraordinary  elevation  of  tone  in  the  air.  For 
miles  and  miles  you  see  at  your  feet,  in  mingled  shades 
of  yellow  and  gray,  a  desolate  waste  of  moss-clad  rock 
and  sand-starved  grass.  At  your  left  is  nothing  but  the 
shine  and  surge  of  the  ocean,  and  over  your  head  that 
wonderful  sky  of  Newport,  which  has  such  an  unex- 
pected resemblance  to  the  sky  of  Venice.  —  Henry 
James  :  Portraits  of  Places. 

h.  1.  The  declining  sun  threw  a  broad  sheen  of  bright- 
ness over  the  surface  of  the  lake,  so  that  we  could  not 
well  see  it  for  excess  of  light;  but  had  a  vision  of  head- 
lands and  islands  floating  about  in  a  flood  of  gold,  and 
blue,  airy  heights  crowning  it  afar.  —  Hawthorne: 
French  and  Italian  Note  Books, 


446  DESCRIPTION 

2.  But  beyond  this  fortress  stretches  a  valley,  and 
beyond  this  valley  another  line  of  mountains  softly 
veiled  by  a  violet  mist  which  rises  from  the  three  lakes 
—  mysterious  bluish  opals,  with  which  this  broad  valley 
is  incrusted.  —  Bourget  :  Impressions  of  Italy. 

3.  White  Pond  and  Walden  are  great  crystals  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  Lakes  of  Light.  If  they  were  per- 
manently congealed,  and  small  enough  to  be  clutched, 
they  would,  perchance,  be  carried  off  by  slaves,  like  pre- 
cious stones,  to  adorn  the  heads  of  emperors ;  but  being 
liquid,  and  ample,  and  secured  to  us  and  our  successors 
forever,  we  disregard  them,  and  run  after  the  diamond 
of  Kohinoor.  They  are  too  pure  to  have  a  market  value ; 
they  contain  no  muck.  —  Thoreau  :   Walden, 

4.  The  day  before  yesterday  at  sunset,  yesterday  from 
the  barrack  windows,  the  sea  was  like  a  polished  mirror 
in  a  framework  of  ebony ;  the  light  flashed  upon  me  as 
though  it  came  from  a  shield  of  silver  or  steel.  I  saw 
the  hulls  of  the  far-off,  motionless  ships,  for  all  the  world 
as  if  they  had  been  frozen  where  they  stood.  As  the  sun 
sank  down,  the  horizon  glowed  and  lightened  like  a 
topaz,  or  a  precious  gem  of  orange  and  red.  —  Taine  : 
Journeys  through  France. 

5.  From  the  ledge  I  could  see  the  whole  of  Whitton 
Pond,  lying  just  below  me.  It  looked  like  a  silver  Mal- 
tese cross  with  its  four  arms  reaching  out  to  the  four 
points  of  the  compass.  —  Bolles  :  At  the  North  of  Bear- 
camp  Water. 

6.  The  Canada  shore,  shaggy  and  gaudy  with  late 
September  foliage,  closes  about  it  like  the  rising  shelves 
of  an  amphitheatre,  and  deepens  by  contrast  the  strong 
blue-green  of  the  stream  [the  Niagara  below  the  falls]. 
This  slow-revolving  surface  —  it  seems  in  places  perfectly 
still — resembles  nothing  so  much  as  some  ancient  pal- 
ace-pavement, cracked   and   scratched   by   the    butts   of 


BESCBIPTION  447 

legionary  spears  and  the  gold-stiffened  hem  of  the 
garments  of  kings.  —  Henry  James  :  Portraits  of 
Places. 

7.  The  pure,  transparent  brown  of  the  ^ew  England 
rivers  is  the  most  beautiful  color ;  but  I  am  content  that 
it  should  be  peculiar  to  them.  —  Hawthorne:  French 
and  Italian  Note  Books, 

8.  Nothing  struck  me  so  much,  I  think,  as  the  color  of 
the  Rhone,  as  it  flows  under  the  bridges  in  the  lower  town. 
It  is  absolutely  miraculous,  and,  beautiful  as  it  is,  suggests 
the  idea  that  tubs  of  a  thousand  dyers  have  emptied  their 
liquid  indigo  into  the  stream.  —  Ibid. 

9.  The  shallower  rapids  above  the  falls  are  less  strongly 
colored,  a  beautiful  light  green  predominating  between 
the  pale-gray  swirls  and  the  snowy  crests  of  foam —  semi- 
opaque,  like  the  stone  called  aquamarine,  because  infused 
with  countless  air-bubbles,  yet  deliciously  fresh  and 
bright.  .  .  .  Here  the  falling  sheet  is  exceptionally 
deep.  Therefore,  as  it  curves,  it  shows  a  stretch  of 
palpitant,  vivid  green  which  is  repeated  at  no  other  point, 
and  it  preserves  its  smoothness  far  below  the  verge 
where  shallower  currents  almost  immediately  break.  No 
one  could  wish  that  this  great  royal  jewel,  this  immense 
and  living  emerald,  might  be  approached  and  analyzed. 
—  Mrs.  Van  Rensselaer  :  Niagara^  in  the  Century 
Magazine. 

Exercise  122.  (^Theme,}  Study  a  scene 
which  includes  shore  and  water,  and  write  a 
description  of  it,  giving  first  the  lines  of  the 
scene,  then  the  colors.  Use  comparisons  freely, 
but  avoid  references  to  precious  stones  and  mir- 
rors, for,  as  you  see  by  the  examples,  even  the 


448  BEscmPTioN 

best  authors  have  used  such  similitudes  to  ex- 
cess. Again  be  careful  to  avoid  hackneyed 
terms  and  fine  writing.  The  careless  observer 
of  a  lake  tries  to  make  up  for  his  poor  observa- 
tion by  using  cheap  finery  of  diction.  He 
reports  "myriads  of  ripples  dancing  in  glee," 
things  that  every  wretched  poetaster  has  seen 
before  him.  A  careful  observer  will  report 
shades  of  color,  and  curious  surface  effects,  like 
corrugation  and  damascene. 

Eead  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  From  time  to  time  we  saw  stretches  of  blue  sea. 
And  once,  for  an  instant,  as  I  looked  np  into  the  hazy, 
clouded  sky,  far  beyond  the  hills,  that  were  lost  in  the 
mist  into  which  the  rice-field  stretched,  I  saw  a  pale,  clear 
blue  opening  in  which  was  an  outline  more  distinct,  some- 
thing very  pure,  the  edge  of  a  mountain,  looking  as  if  it 
belonged  to  another  world  than  the  dewy  moist  one  in 
which  we  are  —  the  cone  of  Fusi-yama. — La  Farge: 
An  Artist's  Letters  from  Japan.^ 

1  The  following  description  of  Fusi-yama  was  written  by 
a  sailor  lad  of  sixteen,  who  was  practically  without  schooling 
and  had  never  before  written  a  description  of  a  landscape. 
It  merely  illustrates  the  fact  that  young  persons  of  little 
education  may  have  sound  artistic  perception. 

"  The  most  graceful  mountain  I  ever  saw  is  that  large  one 
in  Yokohama.  It  has  very  long  curved  lines,  and  goes  up  to 
a  very  sharp  point,  but  is  round  at  the  bottom.  In  one  part 
of  the  mountain  is  a  deep  curve  which  runs  like  a  snake,  and 
there  are  large  cornel  trees  at  that  one  spot.  The  rest  of  the 
mountain  is  bare.     On  the  top  there  is  snow  the  year  round." 


DESCRIPTION  449 

2.  We  were  encamping  in  the  primitive  woods,  by  a 
little  trout-lake  which  the  mountain  carried  high  on  his 
hip,  like  a  soldier's  canteen.  —  John  Burroughs  :  Locusts 
and  Wild  Honey. 

3.  Yesterday,  under  the  sunshine  of  midday,  and  with 
many  voltiininous  clouds  hanging  over  it,  and  a  mist  of 
wintry  w^armth  in  the  air,  it  [the  mountain]  had  a  kind 
of  visionary  aspect,  although  still  it  was  brought  out  in 
striking  relief.  But  though  one  could  see  all  its  bulgings, 
round  swells,  and  precipitous  abruptnesses,  it  looked  as 
much  akin  to  the  clouds  as  to  solid  earth  and  rock  sub- 
stance. —  Hawthorne  :  American  Note  Books. 

4.  The  country  is  delightful;  the  fresh-looking  wooded 
mountains  never  grow  monotonous.  Their  shape  con- 
stantly varies ;  there  is  a  new  aspect  every  quarter  of  an 
hour.  They  seem  to  me  ever  alive,  presenting  here  a 
chest  and  there  a  spine,  prone  or  upright,  grave  and  noble 
in  appearance.  —  Taine  :  Journeys  through  France. 

Here  are  various  impressions  of  mountains. 
They  illustrate  not  merely  the  fact  that  moun- 
tains are  beautiful,  but  that  they  change  in 
beauty  from  day  to  day,  even  from  hour  to 
hour.  What  is  true  of  mountains  in  this  respect 
is  equally  true  of  water,  and  partly  true  of  every 
landscape. 

Exercise  123.  (Theme,)  Observe  a  moun- 
tain, lake,  or  river,  for  several  successive  days, 
making  notes  of  the  changing  beauty  of  the 
scene.      Then  write  a   theme   embodying   the 

various  contrasts  observed. 
2g 


450  DESCRIPTION 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  It  was  hot  in  the  town,  it  was  frightful  on  the 
prairie,  bare  of  trees  as  a  desert.  The  eyes  found  no 
place  to  rest  from  the  hot,  brazen  glare  of  everything  — 
the  grass,  the  grain,  the  sky.  There  was  absolutely  no 
fresh  green  thing  to  be  seen,  no  cool  glint  of  water,  no 
pleasant  shade  —  only  a  radiant,  mocking,  sinister  sky, 
flecked  with  the  white  bodies  of  the  gulls  that  rose  and 
fell,  swooped  and  circled  in  the  blazing  air.  The  farmers 
toiled  at  their  scanty  crops  of  hay,  and  eyed  the  sky  with 
prayers  and  curses  alternating  on  their  lips.  Every  year 
at  this  same  date  those  blighting  winds  had  blown. — 
Garland  :  Jason  Edivards. 

2.  The  early  morning  breeze  was  still  blowing,  and  the 
warm,  sunshiny  air  was  of  some  ethereal  northern  sort, 
with  a  cool  freshness  as  if  it  came  over  new-fallen  snow. 
The  world  was  filled  with  a  fragrance  of  fir-balsam  and 
the  faintest  flavor  of  seaweed  from  the  ledges,  bare  and 
brown  at  low  tide  in  the  little  harbor.  It  was  so  still 
and  so  early  that  the  village  was  but  half  awake.  I  could 
hear  no  voices  but  those  of  the  birds,  small  and  great, — 
the  constant  song  sparrows,  the  clink  of  a  yellow-hammer 
over  in  the  woods,  and  the  far  conversation  of  some 
deliberate  crows.  —  Jewett  :  The  Country  of  the  Pointed 
Firs. 

3.  I  recall  with  a  thrill  one  memorable  morning  in 
such  woods — early,  after  an  overnight  rain,  when  the 
vistas  hung  full  of  a  delicate  mist  that  the  sun  pierced  to 
kindle  a  million  fires  in  the  drops  still  pendulous  from 
leaf  and  twig.  I  can  smell  the  tulip  blossoins  and  the 
odor  of  the  tree-bark  yet,  and  the  fresh,  strong  fragrance 
of  the  leafy  mould  under  my  bare  feet ;  and  I  can  hear 
the  rush  of  the  squirrels  on  the  bark  of  the  trunks,  or  the 
swish  of  their  long,  plunging  leaps  from  bough  to  bough 


DESCRIPTION  451 

in  the  air-tops.     I  hope  we  came  away  without  any  of 
them.  —  HowELLS  :  My  Year  in  a  Log  Cabin. 

4.  It  was  a  queer  little  garden  and  puzzling  to  a 
stranger,  the  few  flowers  being  put  at  a  disadvantage  by 
so  much  greenery  ;  but  the  discovery  was  soon  made  that 
Mrs.  Todd  was  an  ardent  lover  of  herbs,  both  wild  and 
tame,  and  the  sea-breezes  blew  into  the  low  end-window 
of  the  house  laden  with  not  only  sweet-brier  and  sweet- 
mary,  but  balm  and  sage  and  borage  and  mint,  wormwood 
and  southernwood.  Tf  Mrs.  Todd  had  occasion  to  step 
into  the  far  corner  of  her  herb  plot,  she  trod  heavily  upon 
thyme,  and  made  its  fragrant  presence  known  with  all  the 
rest,  r—  Jewett  :  The  Country  of  the  Pointed  Firs. 

5.  Centuries  ago  Pliny  wrote  that  the  vineyards  of 
Italy  gave  it  sovereignty  over  all  other  lands,  "  even  those 
that  bring  forth  odoriferous  spices  and  aromatical  drugs  " ; 
and  he  added,  "  to  say  a  truth,  there  is  no  smell  whatso- 
ever that  outgoeth  vines  when  they  be  in  their  fresh  and 
flowering  time."  He  would  surely  have  written  the  same 
words  had  he  stood  on  Magara's  islands  in  one  of  his  far- 
back  Junes.  Everywhere  are  wild  grapevines,  draped  in 
thick  curtains  or  swung  in  wide  loops,  and  they  bloom  a 
long  time,  for  one  species  begins  to  open  its  flowers  as 
another  is  setting  its  fruit.  For  many  days  this  most 
dainty,  individual,  and  bewitching  of  all  odors  meets  us 
on  every  soft  piiff  of  wind,  with  such  persistence  that 
wherever  it  may  meet  us  again  in  future  years  it  will 
seem  like  a  message  from  Niagara.  —  Mrs.  Van  Rens- 
selaer :  Niagara,  in  the  Century  Magazine. 

6.  And  the  noise  of  Niagara?  Alarming  things  have 
been  said  about  it,  but  they  are  not  true.  It  is  a  great 
and  mighty  noise,  but  it  is  not,  as  Hennepin  thought,  an 
*'  outrageous  noise."  It  is  not  a  roar.  It  does  not  drown 
the  voice  or  stun  the  ear.  Even  at  the  actual  foot  of  the 
falls  it  is  not  oppressive.     It  is  much  less  rough  than  the 


452  DESCRIPTION 

sound  of  heavy  surf  —  steadier,  more  homogeneous,  less 
metallic,  very  deep  and  strong,  yet  mellow  and  soft; 
soft,  I  mean,  in  its  quality.  As  to  the  noise  of  the  rapids, 
there  is  none  more  musical.  It  is  neither  rumbling  nor 
sharp.  It  is  clear,  plangent,  silvery.  It  is  so  like  the 
voice  of  a  steep  brook  —  much  magnified,  but  not  made 
coarser  or  more  harsh  —  that,  after  we  have  known  it, 
each  liquid  call  from  a  forest  hillside  will  seem,  like  the 
odor  of  grapevines,  a  greeting  from  Niagara.  It  is  an 
inspirating,  an  exhilarating  sound,  like  freshness,  cool- 
ness, vitality  itself  made  audible.  And  yet  it  is  a  lulling 
sound.  When  we  have  looked  out  upon  the  American 
rapids  for  many  days,  it  is  hard  to  remember  contented 
life  amid  motionless  surroundings  ;  and  so,  when  we  have 
slept  beside  them  for  many  nights,  it  is  hard  to  think  of 
happy  sleep  in  an  empty  silence.  —  Ibid. 

Enumerate  the  odors  mentioned  in  these  six 
passages.  How  is  each  suggested?  Can  an 
odor  be  described  directly,  or  only  by  compari- 
son with  odors  already  known  to  the  reader  ? 
Enumerate  the  sounds  and  the  other  physical 
sensations. 

Exercise  124.  (Theme.)  Write  a  descrip- 
tion of  some  actual  scene,  giving  the  sights, 
sounds,  and  odors  peculiar  to  it  at  the  time  of 
observation.  Choose  a  scene  as  pleasing  as 
possible. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Ever  since  our  return,  however,  until  to-day,  there 
has  been  a  succession  of  genuine   Indian-summer  days, 


DESCRIPTION  453 

with  gentle  winds  or  none  at  all,  and  a  misty  atmos- 
phere, which  idealizes  all  nature,  and  a  mild,  beneficent 
sunshine,  inviting  one  to  lie  down  in  a  nook  and  forget 
all  earthly  care.  —  Hawthorne:  American  Note  Books. 

2.  It  was  Indian  summer.  There  were  heaps  of  dried 
leaves  in  the  streets,  and  the  founder's  statue  in  the 
centre  of  the  quadrangle  stood  under  a  shower  of  golden 
leaves.  From  corners  on  the  highways  and  from  behind 
the  cemetery  wall  rose  the  faint  smoke  of  bonfires,  bring- 
ing back,  in  its  poignant  odours,  a  sense  of  myriad  days 
long  gone.  Gracious  November  sunshine  rested  over 
everything,  and  man,  like  nature,  fell  into  an  Indian 
summer  mood. —  Margaret  Sherwood:  Henry  Worth- 
ington,  Idealist. 

3.  This  is  a  glorious  day,  —  bright,  very  warm,  yet 
with  an  unspeakable  gentleness  both  in  its  warmth  and 
brightness.  On  such  days  it  is  impossible  not  to  love 
Nature,  for  she  evidently  loves  us.  At  other  seasons  she 
does  not  give  me  this  impression,  or  only  at  very  rare 
intervals ;  but  in  these  happy,  autumnal  days,  when  she 
has  perfected  the  harvests,  and  accomplished  every  neces- 
sary thing  that  she  had  to  do,  she  overflows  with  a  blessed 
superfluity  of  love.  It  is  good  to  be  alive  now.  Thank 
God  for  breath,  —  yes,  for  mere  breath  !  when  it  is  made 
up  of  such  a  heavenly  breeze  as  this.  —  Hawthorne  : 
American  Note  Books, 

4.  I  shall  never  forget  our  silent  happiness,  a  happi- 
ness like  childhood's,  so  complete  and  pure,  as,  mile  after 
mile,  we  watched  the  sunlight  and  the  shadows,  sweep- 
ing over  hill,  and  lake,  and  plain  (so  swiftly  that  every 
minute  the  whole  view  seemed  to  change),  and  saw  the 
snow-white  goats  among  the  purple  heath,  and  the  kine, 
jet-black  and  glowing  red,  knee-deep  in  the  silver  waters. 
—  S.  Reynolds  Hole:  A  Little  Tour  in  Ireland. 

5.  I  am  also  frank  to  confess  that  no  great  waterfall 


454  BESCEIPTION 

or  cataract  ever  gave  me  anything  but  a  cold  chill. 
Niagara  is  merely  a  great  horror  of  nature  like  a  lava 
stream  pouring  into  the  sea,  or  a  volcanic  explosion  like 
that  of  Krakatoa.  Grand  it  is  in  its  mass,  and  sometimes 
beautiful  in  the  coloring  of  the  rising  spray  shot  with 
sunlight ;  but  its  chief  impression  is  one  of  power  unre- 
strained and  catastrophe  unavoidable.  It  is  nothing  less 
than  nature  committing  suicide.  —  Van  Dyke  :  Nature  for 
Its  Own  Sake. 

6.  The  pines  below  my  breezy  hilltop  tempted  me  by 
their  music  into'  their  aisles.  Under  them  was  spread 
the  new  carpet  of  their  needles,  dry,  warm,  and  tempting 
as  a  couch  of  eider-down.  The  wind  sang  in  their  tops, 
oh  so  sweetly,  and  it  took  me  back  to  the  moment  in  my 
earliest  childhood  when  I  was  first  conscious  of  that  soft, 
soothing  music.  I  do  not  know  when  it  was,  nor  where 
it  was,  nor  how  young  I  may  have  been,  but  I  can  recall 
as  from  an  almost  infinite  distance  the  memory  of  a 
sudden  feeling  of  happiness  at  hearing  the  voice  of  the 
pines,  and  knowing  that  it  was  something  kind  and 
soothing.  —  BoLLES  :  At  the  North  of  Bearcamp  Water. 

7.  Alone  I  set  out  for  the  village.  There  was  perfect 
quiet  in  the  mountains,  no  sound  of  axe  or  saw,  nor  crash 
of  falling  trees,  nor  rumble  of  bark-wagons ;  only  the 
tuneful  flow  and  splash  of  the  run,  which  caught  the 
living  sunlight,  and  flashed  it  back  in  radiance  through 
the  flushing  air,  that  quivered  in  the  ecstasy  of  buoyant 
life.  The  fire  of  life  flamed  in  the  glowing  hues  of 
autumn,  and  burned  with  white  heat  in  the  hoar-frost 
which  clung  to  the  shaded  crevices  in  the  rocks,  and 
along  the  blades  of  seared  grass,  and  on  the  fringe  of 
fallen  leaves.  And  I  was  free,  as  free  and  careless  as  the 
mountain-stream,  and  before  me  was  a  blessed  day  of  rest ! 
—  Wyckoff  :   The  Workers. 

8.  Well,  it  seemed  as  if  the  world  was  newly  created 


DESCBIPTION  455 

yesterday  morning,  and  I  beheld  its  birth  ;  for  I  had  risen 
before  the  sun  was  over  the  hill,  and  had  gone  forth  to 
fish.  How  instantaneously  did  all  dreariness  and  heavi- 
ness of  the  earth's  spirit  flit  away  before  one  smile  of  the 
beneficent  sun !  This  proves  that  all  gloom  is  but  a 
dream  and  a  shadow,  and  that  cheerfulness  is  the  real 
truth.  It  requires  many  clouds,  long  bi-ooding  over  us, 
to  make  us  sad,  but  one  gleam  of  sunshine  always  suffices 
to  cheer  up  the  landscape.  The  banks  of  the  river  actu- 
ally laughed  when  the  sunshine  fell  upon  them ;  and  the 
river  itself  was  alive  and  cheerful,  and,  by  way  of  fun 
and  amusement,  it  had  swept  away  many  wreaths  of 
meadow-hay,  and  old,  rotten  branches  of  trees,  and  all 
such  trumpery.  —  Haw^thorne  :  American  Note  Books. 

9.  There  is  something  inexpressibly  touching  and 
inspiring  in  the  combination  of  fading  night,  with  its 
planets  still  glowing,  and  the  bird's  song  of  welcome  to 
the  day.  Night  is  more  eloquent  than  day  in  telling  of 
the  wonders  of  the  vast  creation.  Day  tells  less  of  dis- 
tance, more  of  detail ;  less  of  peace,  more  of  contest ;  less 
of  immortality,  more  of  the  perishable.  The  sun,  with 
its  dazzling  light  and  burning  heat,  hides  from  us  the 
stars,  and  those  still  depths  as  yet  without  stars.  It  nar- 
rows our  limit  of  vision,  and  at  the  same  time  hurries  us 
and  worries  us  with  our  own  tasks  which  we  will  not  take 
cheerfully,  and  the  tasks  of  others  which  are  done  so  ill. 
Mght  tells  not  only  of  repose  on  earth,  but  of  life  in  that 
far  heaven  where  every  star  is  a  thing  of  motion  and  a 
creation  full  of  mystery.  —  Bolles  :  At  the  North  of  Bear- 
camp  Water. 

10.  A  November  mist  overspread  the  little  valley,  up 
which  slowly  but  steadily  rode  the  monk  Eustace.  He 
was  not  insensible  to  the  feeling  of  melancholy  inspired 
by  the  scene  and  by  the  season.  The  stream  seemed  to 
murmur  with  a  deep  and  oppressed  note,  as  if  bewailing 


456  DESCRIPTION 

the  departure  of  autumn.  Among  the  scattered  copses 
which  here  and  there  fringed  its  banks,  the  oak  trees 
only  retained  that  pallid  green  that  precedes  their  russet 
hue.  The  leaves  of  the  willows  were  most  of  them 
stripped  from  the  branches,  lay  rustling  at  each  breath 
and  disturbed  by  every  step  of  the  mule ;  while  the  foli- 
age of  other  trees,  totally  withered,  kept  still  precarious 
possession  of  the  boughs,  waiting  the  first  wind  to  scatter 
them.  —  Scott  :  The  Monastery,  Quoted  by  Hamerton  : 
Imagination  in  Landscape  Painting. 

11.  My  brother  and  I  had  been  sent  on  an  errand  to 
some  neighbor's  —  for  a  bag  of  potatoes  or  a  joint  of 
meat;  it  does  not  matter  —  and  we  had  been  somehow 
belated,  so  that  it  was  well  into  the  night  when  we 
started  home,  and  the  round  moon  was  high  when  we 
stopped  to  rest  in  a  piece  of  the  lovely  open  woodland 
of  that  region,  where  the  trees  stand  in  a  park-like  free- 
dom from  underbrush,  and  the  grass  grows  dense  and 
rich  among  them. 

We  took  the  pole,  on  which  we  had  slung  the  bag, 
from  our  shoulders,  and  sat  down  on  an  old  long-fallen 
log,  and  listened  to  the  closely  interwoven  monotonies  of 
the  innumerable  katydids,  in  which  the  air  seemed  clothed 
as  with  a  mesh  of  sound.  The  shadows  fell  black  from 
the  trees  upon  the  smooth  sward,  but  every  other  place 
was  full  of  the  tender  light  in  which  all  forms  were 
rounded  and  softened ;  the  moon  hung  tranced  in  the 
sky.  We  scarcely  spoke  in  the  shining  solitude,  the 
solitude  which  for  once  had  no  terrors  for  the  childish 
fancy,  but  was  only  beautiful.  This  perfect  beauty 
seemed  not  only  to  liberate  me  from  the  fear  which  is 
the  prevailing  mood  of  childhood,  but  to  lift  my  soul 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  soul  of  all  things  in  an  exquisite 
sympathy.  Such  moments  never  pass ;  they  are  inefface- 
able;  their  rapture  immortalizes;  from  them  we  know 


DESCRIPTION  457 

that  whatever  perishes  there  is  something  in  us  that  can- 
not die,  that  divinely  regrets,  divinely  hopes.  —  W.  D. 
Ho  WELLS  :  My  Year  in  a  Log  Cabin. 

Exercise  125.  (Theme.}  Choose  from  your 
own  experience  some  hour  that  Imgers  in  your 
memory  as  one  when  you  found  deep  pleasure 
or  sadness  in  nature,  and  do  your  best  to  describe 
how  you  felt,  or  how  nature  seemed.  These 
directions  may  seem  somewhat  vague,  but  are 
clear  in  the  light  of  the  examples  immediately 
preceding.  The  theme  written  need  not  be  read 
in  class  if  you  prefer  that  it  should  not  be  read. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  The  hall  lamp  was  now  lighted,  and  I  could  see 
that  her  attire  was  exceedingly  neat  and  becoming.  Her 
face  was  in  shadow,  but  she  had  beautiful  hair  of  a  ruddy 
brown.  —  Stockton  :  A  Bicycle  of  Cathay. 

2.  And  with  this  she  dropped  a  stately  courtesy,  and, 
taking  her  candle,  w^ent  away  through  the  tapestried  door 
which  led  to  her  apartments ;  Esmond  stood  by  the  fire- 
place, blankly  staring  after  her.  Indeed,  he  scarce  seemed 
to  see  until  she  was  gone,  and  then  her  image  was  im- 
pressed upon  him,  and  remained  forever  fixed  upon  his 
memory.  He  saw  her  retreating,  the  taper  lighting  up 
her  marble  face,  her  scarlet  lip  quivering,  and  her  shin- 
ing golden  hair.  —  Thackeray  :  Henry  Esmond. 

3.  At  times  a  cloud,  passing  beneath  the  sun,  threw 
the  shop  into  heavier  shadow;  and  then  the  schoolmaster's 
dark  figure  faded  into  the  tone  of  the  sooty  wall  behind 
him  and   only  his  face,  with  the  contrast   of   its  white 


458  DESCRIPTION 

linen  collar  below  and  the  bare  discernible  lights  of  his 
auburn  hair  above  —  his  face,  proud,  resolute,  astounded, 
pallid,  suffering  —  started  out  of  the  gloom  like  a  portrait 
from  an  old  canvas.  —  Allen  :  The  Choir  Invisible. 

4.  As  it  is  almost  dark  the  sacristan  lights  a  little 
taper,  a  votive  offering,  and,  standing  before  the  altar, 
passes  across  the  picture  vi^ith  his  aged  hand,  which 
trembles  slightly,  the  dim,  flickering  flame  that  lights  up 
the  transparent  gold,  at  once  pale  and  sparkling,  of  the 
angel's  robes.  Their  long  fingers,  touching  celestial  in- 
struments, emerge  from  the  darkness,  then  their  narrow 
chests,  then  their  dreamy  eyes  and  the  melancholy  sweet- 
ness of  the  mouth,  then  the  gold  —  solid  seemingly  — 
which  serves  as  a  background  to  the  face  of  the  Ma- 
donna, raised  humbly  with  a  look  of  touching  accept- 
ance. —  BouRGET  :  Impressions  of  Italy. 

Exercise  126.  (^Theme,')  Study  some  face 
or  picture  of  a  face  as  it  appears  in  half-light 
like  that  described  above.  Note  the  salient 
features  and  the  general  impression,  and  em- 
body this  in  your  theme.  Describe  the  actual 
features,  and,  if  you  please,  the  expression,  but 
do  not  stray  into  analysis  of  character. 

Read  aloud  the  following : 

a.  1.  Bob  was  an  immense  being  in  much  leather  and 
velveteen,  with  a  face  like  a  long-kept  pippin.  —  Arthur 
Morrison  :  To  London  Town. 

2.  1  could  see  that  she  was  trying  to  keep  pace  with 
the  old  captain's  lighter  steps.  He  looked  like  an  aged 
grasshopper  of  some  strange  human  variety.  —  Jewett  : 
The  Country  of  the  Pointed  Firs. 


DESCRIPTION  459 

3.  He  seemed  to  me  gigantic.  A  great  musciilai- 
frame  fairly  filled  the  door.  He  was  dressed  in  a  suit  of 
light-gray  corduroy,  a  flannel  shirt,  a  dark  felt  hat,  and 
top-boots,  and  I  could  see  that  he  was  young  and  not 
unhandsome,  although  of  a  very  diiferent  type  of  good 
looks  from  those  of  Achilles.  His  large,  round  head 
rested  close  upon  a  trunk  that  was  massive  yet  quite 
splendidly  shapely,  and  highly  suggestive  of  agility  and 
strength. —  Wyckoff  :   The  Woi^kers. 

4.  The  prince  remembered  the  newcomer  very  well. 
The  closely-buttoned  frock-coat  showed  the  man's  impos- 
ing figure  to  greater  advantage  than  the  dress  in  which 
Saracinesca  had  last  seen  him ;  but  there  was  no  mistak- 
ing the  personality.  There  was  the  same  lean  but  mas- 
sive face,  broadened  by  the  high  cheekbones  and  the 
prominent  square  jaw ;  there  were  the  same  piercing 
black  eyes,  set  near  together  under  eyebrows  that  met 
in  the  midst  of  the  forehead,  the  same  thin  and  cruel 
lips,  and  the  same  strongly-marked  nose,  set  broadly  on 
at  the  nostrils,  though  pointed  and  keen.  —  Crawford  : 
Sanf  Ilario. 

5.  She  was  a  lovely  woman  —  Mrs.  Amos  Barton ;  a 
large,  fair,  gentle  Madonna,  with  thick  close  chestnut 
curls  beside  her  well-rounded  cheeks,  and  with  her  large, 
tender,  short-sighted  eyes.  The  flowing  lines  of  her  tall 
figure  made  the  simplest  dress  look  graceful.  —  George 
Eliot  :  Amos  Barton. 

6.  The  morning  was  all  that  could  be  desired.  I  got 
up  early,  and  went  to  the  kitchen,  where  an  Irish  maid- 
of-all-w^ork  gave  me  a  bit  of  soap  and  some  water  in  a  tin 
basin,  with  which  to  finish  my  preparation  for  breakfast. 
She  was  a  beautiful  girl,  large  and  awkward  and  ill- 
groomed;  but  her  features  were  strikingly  handsome, 
and  her  clear,  rich  complexion  would  of  itself  have  con- 
stituted a  claim  to  beauty,  while  sprays  of  golden  hair 


460  DESCRIPTION 

fell  in  effective  curls  about  her  forehead,  and  heightened 
the  charm  of  her  deep-set  Celtic  blue  eyes.  —  Wyckoff  : 
The  Workers. 

7.  Fortunately,  nearly  all  of  this  beautiful  figure  [of 
"  Logic "]  is  practically  safe,  the  outlines  pure  every- 
where, and  the  face  perfect:  the  prettiest,  as  far  as  I 
know,  which  exists  in  Italian  art  of  this  early  date.  It 
is  subtle  to  the  extreme  in  gradations  of  color :  the  eye- 
brows drawn,  not  with  a  sweep  of  the  brush,  but  with 
separate  cross  touches  in  the  line  of  their  growth  — 
exquisitely  pure  in  arch ;  the  nose  straight  and  fine ;  the 
lips  —  playful  slightly,  proud,  unerringly  cut ;  the  hair 
flowing  in  sequent  waves,  ordered  as  if  in  musical  time ; 
head  perfectly  upright  on  the  shoulders;  the  height  of 
the  brow  completed  by  a  crimson  frontlet  set  with  pearls, 
surmounted  by  a  fleur-de-lys.  —  Ruskin  :  Mornings  in 
Florence. 

b.  1.  How  some  of  us  fellows  remember  Joe  and 
Harry,  Baltimoreans,  both !  Joe,  w^ith  his  cheeks  like 
lady-apples,  and  his  eyes  like  black-heart  cherries,  and 
his  teeth  like  the  whiteness  of  the  flesh  of  cocoanuts,  and 
his  laugh  that  set  the  chandelier-drops  rattling  overhead 
as  we  sat  at  our  sparkling  banquets  in  those  gay  times ! 
Harry,  champion,  by  acclamation,  of  the  College  heavy- 
weights, broad-shouldered,  bull-necked,  square-jawed,  six 
feet  and  trimmings,  a  little  science,  lots  of  pluck,  good- 
natured  as  a  steer  in  peace,  formidable  as  a  red-eyed 
bison  in  the  crack  of  hand-to-hand  battle.  —  Holmes  : 
The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

2.  They  were  about  of  age,  two  clean-cut,  well- 
groomed,  clear-eyed  English  boys,  who  looked  as  though 
they  might  be  public-school  bred,  and  I  noticed  that  their 
coats  bore  the  name  of  a  London  tailor.  One,  a  brown- 
haired  lad,  with  large,  sober,  brown  eyes  and  a  manner  of 
considerable  reserve,  w^as  exceedingly  good-looking,  and 


DESCRIPTION  461 

the  other,  a  fair-haired,  fair-skinned,  alert-looking  boy, 
plainly  the  spokesman  for  the  two,  had  a  face  of  un- 
usually fine  drawing. —  Wyckoff  :   The  Workers, 

3.  It  was  a  pitiful  contrast  which  the  two  forces 
presented.  The  men  of  the  garrison  were  in  clean 
khaki,  pipe-clayed  and  brushed  and  polished,  but  their 
tunics  hung  on  them  as  loosely  as  the  flag  around  its 
pole,  the  skin  on  their  cheek-bones  was  as  tight  and  as 
yellow  as  the  belly  of  a  drum,  their  teeth  protruded 
through  parched,  cracked  lips,  and  hunger,  fever,  and 
suffering  stared  from  out  their  eyes.  They  were  so  ill 
and  so  feeble  that  the  mere  exercise  of  standing  was  too 
severe  for  their  endurance,  and  many  of  them  collapsed, 
falling  back  to  the  sidewalk,  rising  to  salute  only  the 
first  troop  of  each  succeeding  regiment.  This  done,  they 
would  again  sink  back  and  each  would  sit  leaning  his 
head  against  his  musket,  or  with  his  forehead  resting 
heavily  on  his  folded  arms.  In  comparison  the  relieving 
column  looked  like  giants  as  they  came  in  with  a  swing- 
ing swagger,  their  uniforms  blackened  with  mud  and 
sweat  and  blood-stains,  their  faces  brilliantly  crimsoned 
and  blistered  and  tanned  by  the  dust  and  sun.  They 
made  a  picture  of  strength  and  health  and  aggressive- 
ness.—  R.  H.  Davis:  The  Relief  of  Lady  smith,  in  Harpers 
Monthly. 

Which  passages  are  purely  impressionistic  ? 
What  figurative  comparisons  are  employed  ? 
What  persons  are  described  by  contrast  with 
each  other  ? 

Exercise  127.  QTIieme.}  Write  a  com- 
parison of  the  physical  appearance  of  two  per- 
sons,   refraining    from    analysis    of    character. 


462  DESCRIPTION 

Describe  them  by  general  impression  and  de- 
tails, making  use  of  figurative  comparisons 
when  necessary. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  The  hills  rise  so  sharply  and  the  houses  are  set  on 
them  at  such  incredible  angles  that  it  wouldn't  surprise 
you,  any  day  when  you  are  watching  it,  to  see  the  city 
slide  down  whole  streets  at  a  time.  If  San  Francisco 
had  known  that  it  w^as  to  be  a  city,  and  if  (poor,  luckless 
place  that  it  is,  spite  of  all  its  luck)  it  had  not  burnt 
down  almost  faster  than  it  could  build  up,  it  might  have 
set  on  its  myriad  hills  a  city  which  the  world  could 
hardly  equal.  But,  as  it  is,  it  is  hopelessly  crowded  and 
mixed,  and  can  never  look  from  the  water  like  anything 
but  a  toppling  town.  —  "  H.  H."  :  Bits  of  Travel  at  Home. 

2.  General  Buller  for  his  part  was  confronted  by 
probably  the  worst  country  for  attack,  and  the  most 
admirable  for  defence  in  South  Africa,  or  in  any  other 
continent.  The  fact  that  he  was  two  months  and  fifteen 
days  in  advancing  twelve  miles,  or  from  December  15th 
to  February  28th  in  progressing  from  Colenso  to  Lady- 
smith,  is  the  best  description  of  the  country  that  any  one 
could  give.  —  R.  H.  Davis  :  The  Relief  of  Ladysmiih,  in 
Harper'' s  Monthly. 

3.  I  once  asked  a  native,  presumably  not  a  favorite  of 
the  Whitton  Pond  trout,  whether  he  would  advise  me  to 
go  to  the  pond  fishing.  Turning  his  gray  eye  upon  me, 
he  said  solemnly,  ''Young  man,  ef  I  had  the  ch'ice  of 
fishing  all  day  in  Whitton  Pond  or  in  this  sandy  road, 
Pd  take  the  road  every  time." — Bolles  :  At  the  North 
of  Bearcamp  Water. 

4.  Walden  Pond  was  clear  and  beautiful  as  usual. 
It  tempted  me  to  bathe;    and,  though   the  water  was 


DESCRIPTION  463 

thrillingly  cold,  it  was  like  the  thrill  of  a  happy  death. 
Never  was  there  such  transparent  water  as  this.  I  threw 
sticks  into  it,  and  saw  them  float  suspended  on  an  almost 
invisible  medium.  It  seemed  as  if  the  pure  air  were 
beneath  them,  as  well  as  above.  It  is  fit  for  baptisms ; 
but  one  would  not  wish  it  to  be  polluted  by  having  sins 
washed  into  it.  ]N"one  but  angels  should  bathe  in  it; 
but  blessed  babies  might  be  dipped  into  its  bosom. — 
Hawthorne  :  American  Note  Books. 

5.  Paddling  gently  to  one  of  these  places,  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  myself  surrounded  by  myriads  of  small 
perch,  about  five  inches  long,  of  a  rich  bronze  color  in 
the  green  water,  sporting  there,  and  constantly  rising  to 
the  surface  and  dimpling  it,  sometimes  leaving  bubbles 
on  it.  In  such  transparent  and  seemingly  bottomless 
water,  reflecting  the  clouds,  I  seemed  to  be  floating 
through  the  air  as  in  a  balloon,  and  their  swimming 
impressed  me  as  a  kind  of  flight  or  hovering,  as  if  they 
were  a  compact  flock  of  birds  passing  just  beneath  my 
level  on  the  right  or  left,  their  fins,  like  sails,  set  all 
around  them.  —  Thoreau  :    Walden. 

G.  To  describe  it,  in  the  sense  of  building  up  a  recog- 
nisable image  by  means  of  words,  is  impossible.  The 
scale  is  too  vast;  the  effect  too  tremendous;  the  sense  of 
one's  own  dumbness,  and  littleness,  and  incapacity,  too 
complete  and  crushing.  It  is  a  place  that  strikes  you 
into  silence ;  that  empties  you,  as  it  were,  not  only  of 
words  but  of  ideas.  ...  I  shut  my  eyes,  and  see  it  as  if 
I  were  there  —  not  all  at  once,  as  in  a  picture  ;  but  bit  by 
bit,  as  the  eye  takes  note  of  large  objects  and  travels 
over  an  extended  field  of  vision.  I  stand  once  more 
among  those  mighty  columns,  which  radiate  into  avenues 
from  whatever  point  one  takes  them.  I  see  them  swathed 
in  coiled  shadows  and  broad  bands  of  light.  I  see  them 
sculptured  and  painted  with  shapes  of  Gods  and  Kings, 


464  DESCRIPTION 

with  blazoniiigs  of  ro^^al  names,  with  sacrificial  altars, 
and  forms  of  sacred  beasts,  and  emblems  of  wisdom  and 
truth.  —  Edwards  :  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the  Nile. 

7.  On  the  crown  of  the  biidge  a  vast  man  stood,  such 
as  I  had  never  descried  before,  bearing  no  armour  that 
I  could  see,  but  wearing  a  farmer's  hat,  and  raising  a 
staff  like  the  stem  of  a  young  oak  tree.  He  was  striking 
at  no  one,  but  playing  with  his  staff,  as  if  it  w^ere  a  willow 
in  the  morning  breeze.  —  Blackmore  :  Slain  hy  the  Doones. 

In  all  the  preceding  passages,  show  how 
description  is  suggested  by  stating  effects  pro- 
duced by  the  object  or  person  on  its  surround- 
ings or  on  the  beholder's  mind. 

Exercise  128.  (Theme.)  Describe  an  ob- 
ject, scene,  or  person  by  suggested  effects.  Note 
in  the  case  of  a  person  that  the  task  is  not  to 
expound  his  character,  but  to  describe  his  per- 
sonal appearance. 

When  a  class  of  objects  is  described,  rather 
than  an  individual  of  the  class,  we  have  general- 
ized description.  If  all  the  objects  of  the  class 
are  extremely  alike,  the  generalized  description 
will  present  a  definite  typical  image  to  the 
'reader's  mind.  When  "the  robin"  is  described, 
we  see  almost  as  definite  an  image  as  if  "  a  robin  " 
were  described.  So  in  the  case  of  flowers  and 
plants. 


DESCRIPTION  465 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  In  the  coal  regions  of  Pennsylvania,  where  the 
timber  has  been  destroyed  and  many  of  the  valleys  have 
been  turned  into  mere  sluices  and  drainways  for  the  black 
waters  of  coal  mines,  the  laurel  and  the  rhododendron 
grow  in  great  profusion,  covering  valley,  hill,  and  moun- 
tain for  miles  at  a  stretch.  In  the  early  summer,  when 
they  are  in  bloom,  they  are  really  splendid  in  effect.  All 
the  mountain  seems  in  blossom,  and  along  the  ridges  the 
color  is  banked  up  against  the  blue  sky  in  pink  and  red 
clouds.  —  Van  Dyke:  Nature  for  lis  Own  Sake. 

2.  What  the  ox-eye  daisy  is  to  Xevv  England,  the  wild 
mustard  is  to  these  saints'  valleys  in  California.  But  the 
mustard  has  and  keeps  right  of  way,  as  no  plant  could  on 
the  sparser  New  England  soil.  Literally  acre  after  acre 
it  covers,  so  that  no  spike  nor  spire  of  any  other  thing 
can  lift  its  head.  In  full"  flower,  it  is  gorgeous  beyond 
words  to  describe  or  beyond  color  to  paint.  The  petals 
are  so  small,  and  the  flower  swings  on  so  fine  and  thread- 
like a  stem,  and  the  plant  grows  so  rank  and  high,  that 
the  effect  is  of  floating  masses  of  golden  globules  in  the 
air,  as  you  look  off  through  it,  bringing  the  eye  near  and 
to  its  level ;  or,  as  you  look  down  on  it  from  a  distance, 
it  is  a  yellow^  surface,  too  undulating  for  gold,  too  solid 
for  sea.  There  are  wheat  fields  in  the  Santa  Clara  Val- 
ley, and  farms  with  fruit  trees ;  but  I  recall  the  valley 
only  as  one  long  level  of  blazing,  floating,  yellow  bloom. 
—  "  H.  H."  :  Bits  of  Travel  at  Home. 

3.  And  to  us  there  came  also  a  wayside  greeting  more 
beautiful  than  the  clouds,  bluer  than  the  sky,  and  gladder 
than  the  sun,  —  only  a  flower,  one  flower!  But  it  was 
the  Rocky  Mountain  columbine,  —  peerless  among  colum- 
bines, wondrous  among  flowers.  Waving  at  top  of  a 
stem  two  feet  high,  surrounded  by  buds  full  two  inches 

2h 


466  DESCRIPTION 

and  a  half  in  diameter,  the  inner  petals  stainless  white, 
the  outer  ones  brilliant  blue,  a  sheaf  of  golden-anthered 
stamens  in  the  centre,  —  there  it  stood,  pure,  joyous, 
stately,  regal.  —  Ibid. 

4.  I  say  the  roads  were  empty,  but  they  were  peopled 
with  the  big  prinu'oses  I  just  now  spoke  of  —  primroses 
of  the  size  of  ripe  apples,  and  yet,  in  spite  of  their  rank 
growth,  of  as  pale  and  tender  a  yellow  as  if  their  gold 
had  been  diluted  with  silver.  It  was  indeed  a  mixture 
of  gold  and  silver,  for  there  was  a  wealth  of  the  white 
w^ood  anemone  as  well,  and  these  delicate  flowers,  each  of 
so  perfect  a  coinage,  were  tumbled  along  the  green  way- 
side as  if  a  prince  had  been  scattering  largess.  —  Henry 
James  :  Portraits  of  Places. 

5.  How  shall  kinnikinnick  be  told  to  them  who  know 
it  not?  To  a  New  Engiander  it  might  be  said  that  a 
whortleberry-bush  changed  its  mind  one  day  and  decided 
to  be  a  vine,  with  leaves  as  glossy  as  laurel,  bells  pink- 
striped  and  sweet  like  the  arbutus,  and  berries  in  clusters 
and  of  scarlet  instead  of  black.  The  Indians  call  it 
kinnikinnick,  and  smoke  it  in  their  pipes.  White  men 
call  it  bear-berry,  I  believe ;  and  there  is  a  Latin  name 
for  it,  no  doubt,  in  the  books.  But  kinnikinnick  is  the 
best,  —  dainty,  sturdy,  indefatigable  kinnikinnick,  green 
and  glossy  all  the  year  round,  lovely  at  Christmas  and 
lovely  among  flowers  at  midsummer,  as  content  and 
thrifty  on  bare,  rocky  hillsides  as  in  grassy  nooks,  grow- 
ing in  long,  trailing  wreaths,  five  feet  long,  or  in  tangled 
mats,  five  feet  across,  as  the  rock  or  the  valley  may  need, 
and  living  bravely  many  weeks  without  water,  to  make  a 
house  beautiful.  I  doubt  if  there  be  in  the  world  a  vine 
I  should  hold  so  precious,  indoors  and  out.  —  "H.  II.": 
Bits  of  Travel  at  Home. 

6.  Perhaps  the  most  widely  distributed  of  all  the  Park 
shrubs  and  of  the  Sierra  in  general,  certainly  the  most 


DESCRIPTION  467 

strikingly  characteristic,  are  the  many  species  of  man- 
zanita  (Arctostaphylos).  Though  one  species,  the  Uva- 
ursa,  or  bear-berry,  —  the  kinnikinnick  of  the  Western 
Indians,  —  extends  around  the  world,  the  greater  part  of 
them  are  Calif  or  nian.  They  are  mostly  from  four  to  ten 
feet  high,  roundheaded,  with  innumerable  branches,  brown 
or  red  bark,  pale  green  leaves  set  on  edge,  and  a  rich 
profusion  of  small,  pink,  narrow-throated,  urn-shaped 
flowers  like  those  of  arbutus.  The  branches  are  knotty, 
zigzaggy,  and  about  as  rigid  as  bones,  and  the  bark  is 
so  thin  and  smooth,  both  trunk  and  branches  seem  to 
be  naked,  looking  as  if  they  had  been  peeled,  polished, 
and  painted  red.  The  wood  also  is  red,  hard,  and  heavy. 
—  John  Muir:  The  Wild  Gardens  of  the  Yoseniite.  (The 
Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1900.) 

7.  As  I  strolled  homewards  I  passed  a  spot  where  the 
linnsea  has  covered  several  square  yards  of  ground  in  a 
birch  wood.  The  tiny  bells  had  rung  out  their  elfin  music 
for  the  year.  By  dint  of  laborious  search  on  hands  and 
knees  I  found  eight  of  the  flowers,  still  wonderfully  fra- 
grant, though  somewhat  faded.  All  the  rest  of  the  chime 
had  fallen.  ISTot  far  away  a  growth  of  dogbane  fringed 
the  path.  T  picked  some  of  its  blossoms  and  held  the  two 
sets  of  bells  side  by  side  in  my  hand.  The  comparison 
made  me  feel  sorry  for  the  dogbane.  —  Bolles:  At  the 
North  of  Bear  camp  Water. 

8.  The  loveliest  July  flower  in  the  woods  fringing  Cho- 
corua  is  the  mitchella,  named  by  Linnaeus  for  Dr.  John 
Mitchell  of  Virginia.  In  their  small  round  leaves  of  dark 
glossy  green,  their  creeping  stems,  their  modest,  delicate- 
tiuted  and  highly-perfumed  blossoms,  the  flower  of  Lin- 
naeus and  the  flower  of  Mitchell  are  much  alike.  The  par- 
tridge-berry, as  the  mitchella  is  commonly  called,  begins 
to  bloom  just  as  the  linnaea  bells  cease  to  swing.  It  is  an 
evergreen,  and  all   through  the  winter  its  bright  green 


468  DESCRIPTION 

leaves  and  red  berries  are  one  of  the  pledges  of  returning 
life  after  snow  and  ice  have  vanished.  The  flower  is 
small  and  faces  the  sky.  It  is  white  with  a  delicate  rosy 
blush  tinging  its  corolla,  chiefly  on  its  outer  side.  The 
four  pointed  petals  open  wide  and  curve  back,  exposing 
the  whole  interior  of  the  flower  to  view.  Each  petal  is 
covered  on  its  inner  surface  with  a  thick  velvety  nap 
which  is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  blossom. 
The  perfume  of  this  flower  is  both  powerful  and  pleasant. 
When  freshly  picked  it  suggests  the  scent  of  the  water- 
lily,  coupled  with  something  as  spicy  and  enduring  as  the 
heavier  perfume  of  heliotrope.  —  Ibid. 

What  technical  botanical  terms  are  used  in 
these  eight  passages  ?  Are  any  left  unexplained  ? 
What  figurative  comparisons  are  used  to  make 
the  descriptions  clearer?  Which  flowers  are 
described  by  contrast  ?  Which  passages  deal 
with  no  detail  ?  Which  proceed  from  general 
impression  to  detail  ? 

Exercise  129.  (^Theme.}  Describe  some 
flower  or  plant  as  to  general  appearance,  and 
details  of  form,  color,  and  odor.  Use  compari- 
sons for  the  sake  of  clearness.  Only  a  few  tech- 
nical terms  should  be  employed. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  But  to  return  to  Monterey.  The  houses  here,  as 
everywhere  else  in  California,  are  of  one  story,  built  of 
clay  made  into  large  bricks,  about  a  foot  and  a  half  square 


DESCRIPTION  469 

and  three  or  four  inches  thick,  and  hardened  in  the  sun. 
These  are  cemented  together  by  mortar  of  the  same 
materia],  aod  the  whole  are  of  common  dirt-color.  The 
floors  are  generally  of  earth,  the  windows  grated  and  with- 
out glass,  and  the  doors,  which  are  seldom  shut,  open 
directly  into  the  common  room,  there  being  no  entries. 
Some  of  the  more  wealthy  inhabitants  have  glass  to  their 
wiiidow^s  and  board  floors,  and  in  Monterey  nearly  all  the 
houses  are  plastered  on  the  outside.  The  better  houses, 
too,  have  red  tiles  upon  the  roofs.  The  commou  ones 
have  two  or  three  rooms  which  open  into  each  other,  and 
are  furnished  with  a  bed  or  tw^o,  a  few  chairs  and  tables, 
a  looking-glass,  a  crucifix  of  some  material  or  other,  and 
small  daubs  of  paintings  enclosed  in  glass,  and  represent- 
ing some  miracle  or  martyrdom.  They  have  no  chimneys 
or  fireplaces  in  the  houses,  the  climate  being  such  as  to 
make  a  fire  unnecessary,  and  all  their  cooking  is  done  in 
a  small  cook  house,  separated  from  the  house.  —  Dana: 
Two  Years  before  the  Alast. 

2.  I  hope  you  will  not  say  that  I  have  built  a  pillared 
portico  of  introduction  to  a  humble  structure  of  narrative. 
For  when  you  look  at  the  old  gambrel-roofed  house,  you 
will  see  an  unpretending  mansion,  such  as  very  possibly 
you  were  born  in  yourself,  or  at  any  rate  such  a  place  of 
residence  as  your  minister  or  some  of  your  well-to-do 
country  cousins  find  good  enough,  but  not  at  all  too  grand 
for  them.  We  have  stately  old  Colonial  palaces  in  our 
ancient  village,  now  a  city,  and  a  thriving  one,  —  square- 
fronted  edifices  that  stand  back  from  the  vulgar  highw^ay, 
with  folded  arms,  as  it  were ;  social  fortresses  of  the  time 
when  the  twilight  lustre  of  the  throne  reached  as  far  as 
our  half-cleared  settlement,  wdth  a  glacis  before  them  in 
the  shape  of  a  long  broad  gravel-w^alk,  so  that  in  King 
George's  time  they  looked  as  formidable  to  any  but  the 
silk-stocking  gentry  as  Gibraltar  or  Ehrenbreitstein  to  a 


470  DESCRIPTION 

visitor  without  the  password.  We  forget  all  this  in  the 
kindly  welcome  they  give  us  to-day;  for  some  of  them  are 
still  standing  and  doubly  famous,  as  we  all  know.  But 
the  gambrel-roofed  house,  though  stately  enough  for  col- 
lege dignitaries  and  scholarly  clergymen,  was  not  one  of 
these  old  Tory,  Episcopal-church-goer's  strongholds. — 
Holmes  :   The  Gambrel-roofed  House. 

3.  Boomtown  was  the  usual  prairie  town,  absolutely 
treeless,  built  mainly  of  wood,  and  scattered  about  on  the 
dun  sod  like  a  handful  of  pine  blocks  of  irregular  sizes 
and  shapes. — Garland:  Jason  Edwards. 

4.  I  am  far  from  denying  that  there  is  an  attraction 
in  a  thriving  railroad  village.  The  new  "depot,"  the 
smartly-painted  pine  houses,  the  spacious  brick  hotel,  the 
white  meeting-house,  and  the  row  of  youthful  and  leggy 
trees,  before  it,  are  exhilarating.  They  speak  of  progress, 
and  the  time  when  there  shall  be  a  city,  with  a  His  Honor, 
the  Mayor,  in  the  place  of  their  trim  but  transient  archi- 
tectural growths.  Pardon  me,  if  I  prefer  the  pyramids. 
They  seem  to  me  crystals  formed  from  a  stronger  solution 
of  humanity  than  the  steeple  of  the  new  meeting-house.  — 
Holmes  :  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table. 

5.  All  these  [Lake  Genevan]  villages,  at  several  of 
which  we  stopped  momentarily,  looked  delightfully  un- 
modified by  recent  fashions.  There  is  the  church,  with 
its  tower  crowned  by  a  pyramidal  roof,  like  an  extin- 
guisher ;  then  the  chateau  of  the  former  lord,  half  castle 
and  half  dwelling-house,  with  a  round  tower  at  each 
corner,  pyramid  topped  ;  then,  perhaps,  the  ancient  town- 
house  or  Hotel  de  Ville,  in  an  open  paved  square;  and 
perhaps  the  largest  mansion  in  the  whole  village  will 
have  been  turned  into  a  modern  inn,  but  retaining  all  its 
venerable  characteristics  of  high,  steep-sloping  roof,  and 
antiquated  windows.  Scatter  a  delightful  shade  of  trees 
among  the  houses,  throw  in  a  time-worn  monument  of 


DESCRIPTION  471 

one  kind  or  another,  swell  out  the  delicious  blue  of  the 
lake  in  front,  and  the  delicious  green  of  the  sunny  hill- 
side sloping  up  and  around  this  closely  congregated 
neighborhood  of  old,  comfortable  houses,  and  I  do  not 
know  what  more  I  can  add  to  this  sketch.  —  Haw- 
thorne :  French  and  Italian  Note  Books. 

6.  So,  too,  with  the  prairie  pond,  lying  out  on  the 
treeless  plains  in  its  fringe  of  wild  rice  —  the  spot  where 
once  the  swan  and  the  wild  goose  paused  in  their  migra- 
tory flights,  where  once  the  buffalo  came  to  wallow,  and 
the  Indian  and  his  pony  to  drink.  Birds  and  beasts  and 
Indians  have  about  departed,  but  the  prairie  pond  in  its 
wild  rice  circlet  still  exists  ;  at  morning  and  evening  the 
red  of  the  sky,  the  pale  yellow  of  the  rice,  the  green  of 
the  flag  gleam  upon  its  waters ;  and  at  night  the  moon 
and  the  stars  are  reflected  from  its  shining  surface. — 
Van  Dyke:  Nature  for  Its  Own  Sake. 

7.  The  hail-stone  is  usually  not  larger  than  a  cherry, 
though  in  description  it  is  sometimes  "as  large  as  a  hen's 
egg  " ;  and  it  has  been  seen  as  large  as  a  good-sized  apple, 
but  not  in  the  temperate  zones.  It  is  elastic,  and  the 
bounce  of  hail  from  the  walk  or  lawn  is  a  commonly 
obsei-ved  fact.  Sometimes  with  wind  it  drives  diagonally 
to  the  earth,  but  more  frequently  it  falls  like  the  heavy 
drops  of  the  thunder-shower.  Usually  there  is  nothing- 
marked  about  its  color.  It  is  lighter  in  tone  than  rain, 
and  when  falling  through  the  air  shows  blue-white.  At 
times  a  very  beautiful  effect  is  produced  during  sun- 
showers  by  the  sun's  rays  flashing  upon  the  stones  as 
they  fall.  They  are  then  dazzling  opal-white,  and  quite 
different  from  the  rain-drops,  which  fall  through  sun- 
light like  glittering  diamonds.  Occasionally  one  may 
see  a  hail-storm  turned  into  something  like  a  rain  of 
fiery  red  or  yellow  pebbles,  by  having  the  shower  between 
him  and  a  red  or  yellow  sunset ;   but  this  effect  is  of 


472  DESCRIPTION 

rare    observance.  —  Vaist    Dyke  :    Nature  for    Its    Own 
Sake. 

8.  But  perhaps  the  feature  in  these  Scottish  lowlands 
which  more  particulaily  deserves  notice  here  is  the  con- 
trast to  be  found  between  their  streams  and  those  of 
southeastern  England.  Owing  to  the  uneven  form  and 
steeper  slope  of  the  ground,  the  drainage  runs  off  rapidly 
to  the  sea.  The  brooks  are  full  of  motion,  as  they 
tumble  over  waterfalls,  plunge  through  rocky  ravines, 
and  sweep  round  the  boulders  that  cumber  their  channels. 
They  furnish,  moreover,  countless  dells  and  dingles  where 
the  native  copsewoods  find  their  surest  shelter.  There 
the  gorse  and  the  sloe  come  earliest  into  bloom,  and  the 
wild  flowers  linger  longest.  There,  too,  the  birds  make 
their  chief  home.  These  strips  of  wild  nature,  winding 
through  cultivated  field  or  bare  moor,  from  the  hills  to 
the  sea,  offer  in  summer  scenes  of  perfect  repose.  But 
they  furnish,  too,  from  time  to  time,  pictures  of  tumult 
and  uproar,  when  rain-clouds  have  burst  upon  the  up- 
lands, and  the  streams  come  down  in  heavy  flood,  pour- 
ing through  the  glens  with  a  din  that  can  be  heard  from 
afar.  —  Sir  Archibald  Geikie  :   Types  of  Scenery. 

9.  The  officers  were  dressed  in  the  costume  which  we 
found  prevailed  through  the  country.  A  broad-brimmed 
hat,  usually  of  a  black  or  dark-brown  color,  with  a  gilt  or 
figured  band  round  the  crown,  and  lined  inside  with  silk ; 
a  short  jacket  of  silk  or  figured  calico  (the  European 
skirted  body -coat  is  never  worn),  the  shirt  open  in  the 
neck,  rich  waistcoat,  if  any,  pantaloons  wide,  straight, 
and  long,  usually  of  velvet,  velveteen,  or  broadcloth,  or 
else  short  breeches  and  white  stockings.  They  wear  the 
deer-skin  shoe,  which  is  of  a  dark-brown  color,  and 
(being  made  by  Indians),  usually  a  good  deal  ornamented. 
They  have  no  suspenders,  but  always  wear  a  sash  round 
the  waist,  which  is  generally  red,  and  varying  in  quality 


DESCRIPTION  473 

with  the  means  of  the  wearer.  Add  to  this  the  never- 
failing  cloak,  and  you  have  tlie  dress  of  the  Californian. 
—  Dana  :   Tivo  Years  before  the  Mast. 

10.  The  Paris  ouvrler  [workman]  with  his  democratic 
blouse,  his  expressive,  demonstrative,  agreeable  eye,  his 
meagre  limbs,  his  irregular,  pointed  features,  his  sallow 
complexion,  his  face  at  once  fatigued  and  animated,  his 
light,  nervous  organization,  is  a  figure  that  I  always  en- 
counter again  with  pleasure.  —  Henry  James  :  Portraits 
of  Places. 

11.  If  we  may  trust  the  old  marbles,  .  .  .  those  Greek 
young  men  were  of  supreme  beauty.  Their  close  curls, 
their  elegantly  set  heads,  column-like  necks,  straight 
noses,  short,  curled  lips,  firm  chins,  deep  chests,  light 
flanks,  large  muscles,  small  joints,  were  finer  than  any- 
thing we  ever  see.  —  Holmes  :  Hie  Professor  at  the  Break- 
fast Table. 

Does  every  one  of  these  eleven  generalized 
descriptions  give  the  reader  as  definite  an  image 
as  he  got  from  the  preceding  descriptions  of 
flowers  ?     If  not,  why  not  ? 

Exercise  130.  (Theme.')  Write  a  general- 
ized description  of  the  appeai^ance  of  one  of 
the  following  :  The  district  school-honse  ;  the 
American  drug-store  ;  the  city  boy  compared 
with  the  country  boy  ;  a  species  of  fish  ;  a 
species  of  animal.  Let  your  description  con- 
tain nothing  except  what  you  have  seen  in  the 
case  of  several  examples  of  the  given  class.  Do 
not  drift  into  expounding  character,  or  habits. 


CHAPTER   III 
EXPOSITION 

Read  again  what  is  said  of  exposition  on 
pages  28-33,  102-107. 

Exposition,!  as  already  pointed  out,  deals 
with  the  principles  underlying  any  group  of 
phenomena.  It  is  not  concerned  with  the  act- 
ual appearance  of  things  or  persons  except  as  it 
makes  use  of  these  to  show  the  principles  which 
inform  or  animate  them  ;  nor  is  it  concerned 
with  the  acts  of  a  living  being  except  as  these 
throw  light  on  the  character  or  organization  of 
the  being.  Still  a  very  real  part  is  played  in 
exposition  by  description  and  narration.  Unless 
appearances  or  acts  are  accurately  noted  the 
principles  inferred  from  them  will  be  unsound ; 
and  unless  the  appearances  or  acts  are  intel- 
ligibly reported,  the  reader  will  fail  to  grasp 
the  principles. 

Exposition  makes  much  use  of  generalized 
narration  and  description.     It  is  always  con- 

1  What  is  the  derivation  of  Exposition  f 
474 


EXPOSITION  475 

cerned  with  a  group  of  related  facts,  even  when 
its  purpose  is  to  expound  an  individual.  For 
practical  purposes,  however,  we  need  not  try  to 
reduce  every  exposition  to  terms  of  generalized 
narration  or  description. 

Read  aloud  the  following : 

1.  Mr.  Morrill  was  a  man  of  simple  habits  and  robust 
integrity.  Senator  Hoar  of  Massachusetts  has  well  de- 
scribed him  as  an  admirable  example  of  the  character  of 
an  American  Senator,  with  no  ambition  save  that  to  serve 
the  republic.  He  adds  :  "  He  was  absolutely  incorruptible. 
I  do  not  speak  of  corruption  by  money,  which  is  only  the 
vice  of  vulgar  souls.  But  he  was  not  to  be  swerved  by 
ambition,  by  party  influence,  by  desire  to  please  friends 
or  by  fear  of  displeasing  enemies,  or  by  currents  of  popular 
passion." — The  Youth's  Companion. 

2.  Alcibiades,  a  name  closely  connected  with  the  events 
which  resulted  in  the  ruin  of  the  Athenian  empire,  was 
perhaps  the  most  variously  accomplished  of  all  those 
young  men  of  genius  who  have  squandered  their  genius 
in  the  attempt  to  make  it  insolently  dominant  over  justice 
and  reason.  Graceful,  beautiful,  brave,  eloquent,  and 
affluent,  the  pupil  of  Socrates,  the  darling  of  the  Athenian 
democracy,  lavishly  endowed  by  Nature  with  the  faculties 
of  the  great  statesman  and  the  great  captain,  with  every 
power  and  every  opportunity  to  make  himself  the  pride 
and  glory  of  his  country,  he  was  still  so  governed  by 
an  imp  of '  boyish  perversity  and  presumption,  that  he 
renounced  the  ambition  of  being  the  first  statesman 
of  Athens  in  order  to  show  himself  its  most  restless, 
impudent,  and  unscrupulous  trickster;  and,  subjecting 
all  public  objects  to  the  freaks  of  his  own  vanity  and 


476  EXPOSITION 

selfishness,  ever  ready  to  resent  opposition  to  liis  whim 
with  treason  against  the  state,  he  stands  in  history  a 
curious  spectacle  of  transcendent  gifts  belittled  by  prof- 
ligacy of  character,  the  falsest,  keenest,  most  mischievous, 
and  most  magnificent  demagogue  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
—  Whipple  :  Success  and  lis  Conditions, 

Here  we  have  character  expounded  by  means 
of  direct  general  statement.  The  "  simple  habits" 
of  Senator  Morrill  are  not  described  or  narrated. 
The  tricks  of  Alcibiades,  though  alluded  to,  are 
not  exhibited.  But  in  example  1  great  pains 
are  taken  that  the  terms  used  to  set  forth  char- 
acter shall  be  perfectly  clear. 

Exercise  131.  QTheme,}  Write  a  paragraph 
on  the  character  of  some  person  of  your  ac- 
quaintance, expounding  it  in  general  adjectives 
as  precise  as  you  can  find.  Do  not  attempt  to 
defend  your  statements,  but  be  sure  that  the 
meaning  of  the  words  used  is  clear  to  yourself. 

Eead  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  To  my  great  surprise,  the  duke  saluted  me  quite 
civilly.  But  I  had  the  feeling  of  facing  a  treacherous 
bull  which  would  gore  me  as  soon  as  ever  my  back  was 
turned.  He  was  always  putting  me  in  mind  of  a  bull, 
with  his  short  neck  and  heavy,  hunched  shoulders,  —  and 
with  the  ugly  tinge  of  red  in  the  whites  of  his  eyes. — 
Churchill  :  Richard  Carvel. 

2.  Mrs.  Alurphy  was  a  little,  old,  emaciated  Irish 
woman,  with  her  thin  white  hair  parted  in  the  middle, 


EXPOSITION  477 

smoothed  back,  and  twisted  into  a  careless  knot  on  her 
crown.  Her  face  w^as  wrinkled  almost  to  grotesqueness, 
and  she  had  the  passive  air  of  one  to  whom  can  come  no 
surprises  of  joy  or  sorrow,  as  though  the  capacity  for 
sensation  were  gone,  and  life  had  reduced  itself  to  mere 
existence.- —  Wyckoff  :   The  Workers. 

3.  He  was  a  man  of  Harry's  own  age ;  a  short  man, 
with  somewhat  rough  and  rugged  features  —  strong,  and 
not  without  the  beauty  of  strength.  His  forehead  was 
broad :  he  had  thick  eyebrow^s,  the  thick  lips  of  one  w^ho 
speaks  much  in  public,  and  a  straight  chin  —  the  chin  of 
obstinacy.  His  eyes  were  bright  and  full ;  his  hair  was 
black ;  his  face  was  oval ;  his  expression  was  masterful ; 
it  was  altogether  the  face  of  a  man  who  interested  one. 
—  Bes ANT  :  A II  Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men. 

4.  He  was  a  strongly  built  young  man,  of  twenty-six 
or  seven,  with  a  profile  that  looked  as  if  it  had  been  pat- 
terned after  some  Koman  coin.  The  muscles  of  neck  and 
shoulders  bore  witness  to  athletic  training.  His  face 
wore  an  expression  of  obstinate  firmness,  not  unmixed 
with  sweetness.  There  was  a  fresh  air  of  youth  and 
innocence  about  him,  and  the  look  in  his  dark  gray  eyes 
denoted  a  reserve  of  fun  down  under  his  shyness.  — 
Margaret  Sherwood  :  Henry  Worthington,  Idealist. 

5.  He  had  his  mother's  under  lip  and  complexion. 
Grafton  was  sallow;  Philip  was  a  peculiar  pink,  —  not 
the  ruddy  pink  of  heartier  natures,  like  my  grandfather's, 
nor  yet  had  he  the  peachlike  skin  of  Mr.  Dix.  Philip's 
was  a  darker  and  more  solid  colour,  and  I  have  never  seen 
man  or  w^oman  with  it  and  not  mistrusted  them.-  He 
wore  a  red  velvet  coat  embroidered  with  gold,  and  as 
costly  ruffles  as  I  had  ever  seen  in  London.  But  for  all 
this  ray  cousin  had  a  coarse  look,  and  his  polished  blue 
flints  of  eyes  were  those  of  a  coarse  man.  — Churchill  : 
Richard  Carvel, 


478  EXPOSITION 

6.  But  few  of  those  who  pride  themselves  on  their 
knowledge  of  the  human  face  would  have  perceived  in 
this  lady's  features  any  shape  of  steadfast  will.  Perhaps 
the  expression  had  passed  away,  while  the  substance  set- 
tled inward ;  but  however  that  may  have  been,  her  face 
was  pleasant,  calm,  and  gentle.  Her  manner  also  to  all 
around  her  was  courteous,  kind,  and  unpretending;  and 
people  believed  her  to  have  no  fault,  until  they  began  to 
deal  with  her.  Her  eyes,  not  overhung  with  lid,  but  deli- 
cately set  and  shaped,  were  still  bright,  and  of  a  pale 
blue  tint;  her  forehead  was  not  remarkably  large,  but 
straight  and  of  beautiful  outline ;  while  the  filaments  of 
fine  wrinkles  took,  in  some  lights,  a  cast  of  silver  from 
snowy  silkiness  of  hair.  For  still  she  had  abundant  hair, 
that  crown  of  glory  to  old  age  ;  and  like  a  young  girl,  she 
still  took  pleasure  in  having  it  drawn  through  the  hand^, 
and  done  wisely,  and  tired  to  the  utmost  vantage. — 
Blackmore  :  A  lice  Loj^raine. 

7.  Young  Thomas  More  had  no  sooner  quitted  the 
University  than  he  was  known  throughout  Europe  as 
one  of  the  foremost  figures  in  the  new  movement  for  the 
advancement  of  learning.  The  keen  irregular  face,  the 
gray  restless  eye,  the  thin  mobile  lips,  the  tumbled  brown 
hair,  the  careless  gait  and  dress,  as  they  remained  stamped 
on  the  canvas  of  Holbein,  picture  the  inner  soul  of  the 
man,  his  vivacity,  his  restless  all-devouring  intellect,  his 
keen  and  even  reckless  wit,  the  kindly,  half-sad  humor 
that  drew  its  strange  veil  of  laughter  and  tears  over  the 
deep  tender  reverence  of  the  soul  within.  —  Green  :  Short 
History  of  the  English  People. 

8.  But  nature  has  given  him  [Mr.  John  Morley]  a 
certain  sternness  of  feature :  a  long  and  strong  nose ;  a 
face  not  lean  and  hungry  like  that  of  Cassius,  but  still 
thin  and  in  rigid  lines  ;  a  full  and  compressed  mouth, 
that  looks  stern  in  repose;  and  a  figure  which  remains 


EXPOSITION  479 

spare  in  middle  age  —  all  of  which  suggests  fanaticism  to 
the  full-bodied  Englishman.  In  addition  there  is  in  Mr. 
Mor ley's  face  and  air  a  great  deal  of  shy  reserve,  of  pride 
and  dignity,  of  the  repose  that  comes  to  be  the  expression 
of  most  men  who  have  been  the  companions  of  books  and 
high  thoughts  throughout  their  lives,  all  of  which  might 
suggest  something  in  him  of  that  same  air  of  aloofness  and 
loftiness  in  Saint-Just,  which  stirred  the  bile  of  Danton. 
9.  There  was  still  an  hour  to  wait,  and  I  went  up  to 
the  hill  just  above  the  school-house  and  sat  there  think- 
ing of  things,  and  looking  off  to  sea,  and  watching  for  the 
boat  to  come  in  sight.  I  could  see  Green  Island,  small 
and  darkly  wooded  at  that  distance ;  below  me  were  the 
houses  of  the  village  with  their  apple  trees  and  bits  of 
garden  ground.  Presently,  as  I  looked  at  the  pastures  be- 
yond, I  caught  a  last  glimpse  of  Mrs.  Todd  herself,  walking 
slowly  in  the  footpath  that  led  along,  following  the  shore 
toward  the  Port.  At  such  a  distance  one  can  feel  the 
large,  positive  qualities  that  control  a  character.  Close 
at  hand,  Mrs.  Todd  seemed  able  and  warm-hearted  and 
quite  absorbed  in  her  bustling  industries,  but  her  distant 
figure  looked  mateless  and  appealing,  with  something 
about  it  that  was  strangely  self-possessed  and  mysterious. 
—  Jewett  :   The  Country  of  the  Pointed  Firs. 

In  these  nine  passages,  description  is  called 
to  the  aid  of  exposition.  A  meaning  is  at- 
tached to  almost  every  peculiarity  of  feature 
or  bearing.  Correctly  or  not,  the  underlying 
principles  of  character  are  explained  by  means 
of  the  physical  facts.  Study  the  passages  and 
state  from  memory  the  inferences  which  are 
made  from  physical  phenomena. 


480  EXPOSITION 

Exercise  132.  (Theme.}  Write  an  expo- 
sition of  the  character  of  some  actual  person, 
showing  how  the  traits  of  character  are  re- 
vealed in  the  features,  expression,  and  carriage. 

Read  aloud  the  following : 

1.  Against  the  walls  of  the  salon  stood  low  bookcases, 
their  tops  covered  with  curios  and  the  hundred  and  one 
knickknacks  that  encumber  a  bachelor's  apartment. — 
F.  HoPKiNSON  Smith  :   Caleb  West,  Master  Diver. 

2.  The  room  was  furnished  with  taste ;  the  books  on 
the  shelves  were  well-bound,  as  if  the  owner  took  a 
proper  pride  in  them,  as  indeed  was  the  case.  There 
were  two  or  three  good  pictures ;  there  was  a  girl's  head 
in  marble ;  there  were  cards  and  invitations  lying  on 
the  mantel-shelf  and  in  a  rack  beside  the  clock.  Every- 
body could  tell  at  the  first  look  of  the  room  that  it 
was  a  bachelor's  den.  Also  because  nothing  was  new, 
and  because  there  w^ere  none  of  the  peacockeries,  whims 
and  fancies,  absurdities,  fads  and  fashions,  gimci-acker- 
ies — the  presence  of  which  does  always  and  infallibly 
proclaim  the  chamber  of  a  young  man — this  room  mani- 
festly belonged  to  a  bachelor  who  was  old  in  the  profes- 
sion.—  Besant  :  All  Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men. 

3.  The  remaining  furniture  of  the  room  was  simple 
and  poor  :  a  neat  camp  bedstead,  a  boot-jack,  and  a  round 
mirror,  not  more  than  four  inches  in  diameter ;  a  tin  tub 
and  an  iron  washing-stand ;  a  much  battered  old  "  schla- 
ger,"  with  the  colors  at  the  hilt  all  in  rags,  hung  over  the 
iron  stove ;  and  that  was  all  the  room  contained  besides 
books  and  the  working-table  and  chair.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  live  more  simply,  and  yet  everything  was 


EXPOSITION  481 

neat  and  clean,  and  stamped,  too,  with  a  certain  cachet  of 
individuality.  There  were  probably  hundreds  of  student- 
rooms  in  the  town  of  Heidelberg  which  boasted  no  more 
adornment  or  luxury  than  this,  and  yet  there  was  not 
one  that  looked  like  it.  A  student's  room,  as  he  grows 
up,  is  a  reflection  of  himself;  it  is  a  kind  of  dissolving 
view,  in  which  the  one  set  of  objects  and  books  fades 
gradually  away  as  his  opinions  form  themselves,  and  as 
he  collects  about  him  the  works  that  are  really  of  interest 
to  him,  as  distinguished  from  those  with  which  he  has 
been  obliged  to  occupy  himself  prior  to  taking  his 
academic  steps.  Then,  as  in  the  human  frame,  every 
particle  of  bone  and  sinew  is  said  to  change  in  seven 
years,  the  student  one  day  looks  about  him  and  recog- 
nizes that  hardly  a  book  or  a  paper  is  there  of  all  the 
store  over  which  he  w^as  busied  in  those  months  before 
he  took  his  degree,  or  sustained  his  disputation.  When 
a  man  has  entered  on  his  career,  if  he  enters  on  it  with  a 
will,  he  soon  finds  that  all  books  and  objects  not  essential 
as  tools  for  his  work  creep  stealthily  into  the  dusty 
corner,  or  to  the  inaccessible  top  shelf  of  the  bookcase,  — 
or  if  he  is  very  poor,  to  the  second-hand  bookshop.  He 
cannot  afford  to  be  hampered  by  any  dead  weight. — 
Crawford  :  Dr.  Claudius. 

Sketch  the  character  of  Dr.  Claudius  orally, 
as  well  as  you  can  from  Mr.  Crawford's  descrip- 
tion of  his  room. 

Exercise  133.  (^Theme.)  Choose  an  actual 
room  and  describe  it,  selecting  only  those  de- 
tails which  seem  to  throw  light  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  occupant  —  the   details   in  which 

2i 


482  EXPOSITION 

the  person's  cliaracter  lias  modified  the  person's 
environment. 

Kead  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Mr.  Emerson  came,  with  a  sunbeam  in  his  face; 
and  we  had  as  good  a  talk  as  I  ever  remember  to  have 
had  with  him.  —  Hawthornp:  :  ^American  Note  Books. 

2.  Mr.  Morley  is  at  bottom  one  of  the  most  genial  of 
men,  largely  tolerant,  kindly,  modest  in  putting  forward 
his  own  views,  the  best  of  listeners  to  the  views  of  others. 
It  is  a  striking  proof  of  this  that  when  once  a  certain 
number  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  agreed  to  write  down 
the  name  of  the  man  among  their  acquaintances  whom 
they  would  select  as  their  companion  on  a  desert  island 
that  of  Mr.  Morley  appeared  on  all  their  lists. 

3.  A  shrewd,  hard,  domineering,  narrow-minded 
woman,  she  educated  her  children  according  to  her 
lights,  and  spoke  of  the  eldest  as  a  dull,  good  boy :  she 
kept  him  very  close :  she  held  the  tightest  rein  over  him  : 
she  had  curious  prejudices  and  bigotries.  His  uncle, 
the  burly  Cumberland,  taking  down  a  sabre  once,  and 
drawing  it  to  amuse  the  child  —  the  boy  started  back  and 
turned  pale.  The  Prince  felt  a  generous  shock  :  "  What 
must  they  have  told  him  about  me  ?  "  he  asked.  —  Thack- 
eray: The  Four  Georges. 

4.  Though  I  never  heard  my  father  use  a  rough  word, 
'twas  extraordinary  with  how  much  awe  his  people  re- 
garded him;  and  the  servants  on  our  plantation  —  both 
those  assigned  from  England  and  the  purchased  negroes 
—  obeyed  liim  w^th  an  eagerness  such  as  the  most  severe 
taskmasters  round  about  us  could  never  get  from  their 
people.  He  was  never  familiar,  though  perfectly  simple 
and  natural ;  he  was  the  same  with  the  meanest  man  as 
with  the  greatest,  and  as  courteous  to  a  black  slave-girl 


EXPOSITION  483 

as  to  the  governor's  wife.  No  one  ever  thought  of  taking 
a  liberty  with  him,  except  once,  a  tipsy  gentleman  from 
York,  and  I  am  bound  to  own  that  my  papa  never  for- 
gave him.  He  set  the  humblest  people  at  once  on  their 
ease  with  him,  and  brought  down  the  most  arrogant  by 
a  grave  satiric  way,  which  made  persons  exceedingly 
afraid  of  him.  His  courtesy  was  not  put  on  like  a  Sun- 
day suit,  and  laid  by  when  the  company  went  away ;  it 
was  always  the  same,  as  he  w^as  always  dressed  the  same, 
whether  for  a  dinner  by  ourselves  or  for  a  great  enter- 
tainment. They  say  he  liked  to  be  the  first  in  his  com- 
pany ;  but  what  company  was  there  in  which  he  would 
not  be  first?  When  I  went  to  Europe  for  my  education, 
and  we  passed  a  winter  at  London,  with  my  half-brother, 
my  Lord  Castlewood,  and  his  second  lady,  I  saw  at  her 
Majesty's  Court  some  of  the  most  famous  gentlemen  of 
those  days ;  and  I  thought  to  myself,  none  of  these  are 
better  than  my  papa:  and  the  famous  Lord  Bolingbroke, 
who  came  to  us  from  Dawley,  said  as  much ;  and  that 
the  men  of  that  time  were  not  like  those  of  his  youth. 
"  Were  your  father,  madam,"  he  said,  "  to  go  into  the 
woods,  the  Indians  would  elect  him  Sachem ; "  and  his 
lordship  was  pleased  to  call  me  Pocahontas.  —  Thack- 
eray :  Henry  Esmond. 

5.  I  remember,  too,  a  service  in  a  well-filled  church, 
[in  Colorado,]  and  an  odd  reminder  in  its  worshippers  of 
the  Eastern  seaboard,  and  the  exciting  expectancy  of 
chance  sight  of  some  familiar  face,  and,  finally,  the  figure 
of  a  girl,  who,  entering  after  the  service  had  begun, 
slipped  noiselessly  into  a  seat  at  my  side  in  a  pew  near 
the  door.  A  wonderful  vision  she  was  of  what  men 
mean  when  they  speak  feelingly  out  here  of  "  God's  coun- 
try." for  you  no  sooner  saw  her  than  there  flashed  into 
sight  the  long  vista  of  the  avenue  as  it  heaves  to  the  lift 
of  Murray  Hill.     You  could  see  her  there  —  and  can  see 


484  EXPOSITION 

her  superior  nowhere  under  heaven  —  with  the  light 
streaming  in  red,  level  rays  through  the  side  streets  on  a 
late  afternoon  in  the  cold,  crisp  air  of  autumn,  with  the 
tan  of  a  summer  on  the  New  England  coast  upon  her, 
and  her  exquisite  figure  instinct  with  the  vitality  which 
comes  of  yachting  and  hard  riding,  her  frock  and  jacket 
fitting  her  like  a  glove,  and  her  clear,  frank  eyes  looking 
you  straight  between  your  own  and  making  you  feel  in 
her  presence  that  a  clean,  wholesome,  manly  thing  is  life ! 
—  Wyckoff  :   The  Workers. 

6.  His  story  was  as  ordinary  and  prosaic  as  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Pierce  seemed  to  think  his  character.  Neither  riches 
nor  poverty  had  put  a  shaping  hand  to  it.  The  only  child 
of  his  widowed  mother,  he  had  lived  in  one  of  the  smaller 
manufacturing  cities  of  New  England,  a  life  such  aj$  falls 
to  most  lads.  Unquestionably  he  had  been  rather  more 
shielded  from  several  forms  of  temptation  than  had  most 
of  his  playmates,  for  his  mother's  isolation  had  made  him 
not  merely  her  son,  but  very  largely  her  companion.  In 
certain  ways  this  had  tended  to  make  him  more  manly 
than  the  average  fellow  of  his  age,  but  in  others  it  had 
retarded  his  development;  and  this  backwardness  had 
been  further  accentuated  by  a  deliberate  mind,  which 
hardly  kept  pace  with  his  physical  growth.  His  school 
record  was  fair:  "painstaking,  but  slow,"  was  the  report 
of  his  studies.  "  Exemplary,"  in  conduct.  He  was  not  a 
leader  among  the  boys,  but  he  was  very  generally  liked. 
A  characteristic  fact,  for  good  or  bad,  was  that  he  had 
no  enemies.  From  the  clergyman  to  the  "hired  help," 
everybody  had  a  kind  word  for  him,  but  tinctured  by  no 
enthusiasm.  All  spoke  of  him  as  "  a  good  boy,"  and  when 
this  was  said,  they  had  nothing  more  to  say. 

One  important  exception  to  this  statement  is  worthy 
of  note.  The  girls  of  the  High  School  never  liked  him. 
If  they  had  been  called  upon  for  reasons,  few  could  have 


EXPOSITION  485 

given  a  tangible  one.  At  their  age,  everything  this  world 
contains,  be  it  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  or  a  stick  of  chewing 
gum,  is  positively  or  negatively  "nice."  For  some  crime 
of  commission  or  omission,  Peter  had  been  weighed  and 
found  wanting.  "  He  isn't  nice,"  was  the  universal  ver- 
dict of  the  scholars  who  daily  filed  through  the  door, 
which  tlie  town  selectmen,  with  the  fine  contempt  of  the 
narrow  man  for  his  unpaid  '^help,"  had  labelled,  "for 
females."  If  they  had  said  that  he  was  "perfectly 
horrid,"  there  might  have  been  a  chance  for  him.  But  the 
subject  was  begun  and  ended  with  these  three  words. — 
Ford  :   The  Honorable  Peter  Stirling. 

(1)  Why  does  Hawthorne  say  that  Emerson 
had  a  ''  sunbeam  "  in  his  face  ?  (2)  Does  Mr. 
Morley's  effect  upon  the  ''certain  number  of 
ladies  and  gentlemen  "  seem  adequate  proof  of 
the  statements  made  in  the  first  sentence  of  the 
passage  concerning  him  ?  (3)  What  is  ex- 
pounded in  the  third  selection  ?  (4)  Which 
sentences  in  the  fourth  selection  expound 
character  by  direct  statements  ?  which  by 
stating  effects  produced  by  that  character 
in  other  persons  ?  (5)  Was  the  character 
of  the  girl  mentioned  by  Professor  Wyckoff 
frank,  womanly,  courageous,  pure,  or  sly,  frivo- 
lous, cowardly?  How  do  you  judge?  Which 
seems  to  you  more  artistic  —  exposition  by 
direct  statement,  or  exposition  by  suggestive 
"effects"? 


486  EXPOSITION 

Exercise  134.  (Theme.)  Think  of  some 
person  whose  effect  on  you  is  elevating,  and  set 
forth  the  character  of  that  person  by  telling  the 
effect  his  (or  her)  character  has  on  different 
associates. 


Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Julia  Welford  expected  too  much  of  everybody  and 
everything ;  therefore  disappointment  was  her  inalienable 
portion.  She  was  always  overdrawing  her  account  at  the 
bank  of  life,  and  consequently  having  her  cheques  dis- 
honored. She  had  never  grasped  the  fact  that  the  meas- 
ure wherewith  we  mete  is  the  only  measure  which  we 
have  a  right  to  demand;  and  that  as  we  can  only  give  of 
our  very  best  to  one  person,  we  should  only  expect  one 
person  to  give  his  or  her  very  best  to  us.  Poor  Julia,  how- 
ever, expected  to  be  first  in  the  estimation  of  people  who 
occupied  about  the  twenty-fifth  place  in  her  scale  of 
attachment ;  and  when  she  found  that  she  was  naturally 
not  the  primary  consideration  in  these  cases,  she  cried 
her  eyes  out,  and  exclaimed  that  love  was  a  snare,  and 
friendship  vanity.  She  had  no  sense  of  proportion. — 
Ellen  Thorneycroft  Fowler:  A  Double  Thread. 

2.  Some  of  the  good  people  of  Georgetown,  Ripley,  and 
Batavia,  go  far  in  their  attempt  to  show  how  very  ordi- 
nary Ulysses  S.  Grant  was. 

A  boy  of  thirteen  who  could  drive  a  team  six  hundred 
miles  across  country  and  arrive  safely ;  who  could  load  a 
wagon  with  heavy  logs  by  his  own  mechanical  ingenuity  ; 
who  insisted  on  solving  all  mathematical  problems  him- 
self ;  who  never  whispered  or  lied  or  swore  or  quarrelled ; 
who  could  train  a  horse  to  pace  or  trot  at  will ;  who  stood 


EXPOSITION  487 

squarely  upon  his  own  knowledge  of  things,  without 
resorting  to  trick  or  mere  verbal  memory,  —  such  a  boy, 
at  this  distance,  does  not  appear  "  ordinary,"  stupid,  dull, 
or  commonplace.  That  he  was  not  showy  or  easily 
valued  is  true.  His  unusualness  was  in  the  balance  of 
his  character,  in  his  poise,  jn  his  native  judgment,  and  in 
his  knowledge  of  things  at  first  hand,  and  in  his  ability 
to  persist. 

Even  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  had  a  superstition  that 
to  retreat  was  fatal.  When  he  set  hand  to  any  plan,  or 
started  on  any  journey,  he  felt  the  necessity  of  going  to 
the  turn  of  the  lane,  or  the  end  of  the  furrow.  He  was 
resolute  and  unafraid  always ;  a  boy  to  be  trusted  and 
counted  upon  —  sturdy,  capable  of  hard  knocks.  What 
he  was  in  speech,  he  was  in  grain.  If  he  said,  "  I  can  do 
that,"  he  not  merely  meant  that  he  would  try  to  do  it, 
but  also  that  he  had  thought  his  way  to  the  successful  end 
of  the  undertaking.  He  was  an  unusually  determined 
and  resourceful  boy.  —  Garland  :  Life  of  Grant. 

3.  I  was  making  ginger  cakes  when  Rubina  stopped  at 
the  door,  a  small  inky  splotch  against  the  yellow-pink  of 
the  evening  sky.  The  round  eyes  stared ;  the  teeth 
showed  broadly  in  a  grin  ;  stiff  little  plaits  of  hair  stood 
rampantly  erect  on  her  head. 

The  round  eyes  watched  me  appreciatively  as  I  cut 
cake  after  cake  and  put  it  in  the  pan.  In  went  dough, 
horses  and  dogs  and  elephants,  fashioned  with  a  cheerful 
disregard  for  the  laws  of  anatomy.  The  child's  grin 
deepened  as  I  took  a  panful  of  the  animals,  daintily 
browned,  from  the  stove. 

"What  is  it,  Rubina?     Do  you  want  a  cake?" 

She  waited  a  minute,  the  round  eyes  unchanged,  the 
teeth  still  showing.  Then  she  handed  me  a  piece  of  paper. 
"No'm;  I  want  you  ter  write  me  a  composition,  please 
ma'am.     De  subjec'  is,  ^  Whut  de  Modern  System  uv  Edu- 


488  EXPOSITION 

cation  Does  Fuh  de  Human  Eace.' "  —  Irene  Fowler 
Brown,  in  Harper's  Magazine. 

(1,  2)  Which  selection,  the  first  or  the  sec- 
ond, shows  character  hj  specifying  particular 
acts  which  grew  out  of  that  character  ?  which 
by  stating  in  general  terms  the  habits  of  action 
which  grew  out  of  character  ?  Which  method 
is  the  more  vivid  ?  In  which  passage  do  figures 
of  speech  partly  atone  for  the  absence  of  specific 
words?  (3)  In  the  third  selection,  whose 
character  is  being  expounded  ?  Is  the  person's 
act  mentioned,  or  merely  to  be  inferred  ? 

Exercise  135.  (Theme,')  Write  an  exposi- 
tion of  some  actual  character,  specifying'definite 
acts  to  prove  each  assertion. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Then  there  was  the  Commencement  at  Cambridge, 
and  the  full  account  of  the  exercises  of  the  graduating  of 
my  own  class.  A  list  of  all  those  familiar  names  (begin- 
ning as  usual  with  Abbott,  and  ending  with  W),  which, 
as  I  read  them  over,  one  by  one,  brought  up  their  faces 
and  characters  as  I  had  known  them  in  the  various 
scenes  of  college  life.  Then  I  imagined  them  upon  the 
stage,  speaking  their  orations,  dissertations,  colloquies, 
etc.,  with  the  gestures  and  tones  of  each,  and  tried 
to  fancy  the  manner  in  which  each  would  handle 
his  subject.  .  .  .  ,  handsome,  showy,  and  superficial; 
.  .  .  ,  with  his  strong  head,  clear  brain,  cool  self- 
possession  J  .  .  .  ,    modest,    sensitive,    and    underrated ; 


EXPOSITION  489 

B  .  .  .  ,  the  mouth-piece  of  the  debating-clubs,  noisy, 
vaporous,  and  democratic  ;  and  so  following.  —  Dana  ; 
Two  Years  before  the  Mast. 

2.  A  recent  judicious  French  writer  (M.  Edouard  La- 
boulaye),  though  greatly  admiring  the  character  of 
Washington,  denies  him  the  brilliant  military  genius  of 
Julius  Csesar.  For  my  own  part,  considering  the  dis- 
parity of  the  means  at  their  command  respectively  and  of 
their  scale  of  operations,  I  believe  that  after  times  will, 
on  the  score  of  military  capacity,  assign  as  high  a  place 
to  the  patriot  chieftain  who  founded  the  Republic  of 
America,  as  to  the  ambitious  usurper  who  overturned  the 
liberties  of  Rome.  Washington  would  not  most  cer- 
tainly have  carried  an  unprovoked  and  desolating  war 
into  the  provinces  of  Gallia,  chopping  off  the  right  hands 
of  whole  populations  guilty  of  no  crime  but  that  of 
defending  their  homes ;  he  w^ould  not  have  thrown  his 
legions  into  Britain  as  Caesar  did,  though  the  barbarous 
natives  had  never  heard  of  his  name.  Though,  to  meet 
the  invaders  of  his  country,  he  could  push  his  way  across 
the  broad  Delaware,  through  drifting  masses  of  ice  in  a 
December  night,  he  could  not,  I  grant,  in  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  his  country,  have  spurred  his  horse  across  the 
"  little  Rubicon  "  beneath  the  mild  skies  of  an  Ausonian 
winter.  It  was  not  talent  which  he  wanted  for  brilliant 
military  achievement;  he  wanted  a  willingness  to  shed 
the  blood  of  fellow-men  for  selfish  ends ;  he  wanted  nn- 
chastened  ambition  ;  he  wanted  an  ear  deaf  as  the  adder's 
to  the  cry  of  suffering  humanity;  he  wanted  a  remorse- 
less thirst  for  false  glory ;  he  w^anted  an  iron  heart.  — 
Everett  :    The  Character  of  Washington. 

Exercise  136.  (Theme,}  Write  a  compari- 
son of  the  characters  of  two  actual  persons,  com- 


490  EXPOSITION 

paring  both  their  appearance,  their  acts,  and 
their  effect  on  other  persons,  so  far  as  tlie 
appearance,  acts,  and  effects  really  show  char- 
acter. Resist  the  temptation  to  establish  merely 
fanciful  points  of  comparison. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  The  air-liquefying  apparatus  used  by  Tripler  in  the 
earlier  part  of  1899  may  be  described  in  a  general  way 
as  consisting  of  three  steel  cylinders,  through  which  the 
air  passed  successively,  being  compressed  by  a  plunger  in 
each.  As  the  plunger  descended  near  the  middle  of  the 
cylinder,  the  air,  very  much  reduced  in  bulk,  escaped 
through  a  valve  into  a  coil  of  pipe  that  discharged  into 
the  next  cylinder,  the  plunger  in  which  was  at  the  mo- 
ment raised.  Then  the  process  was  repeated  on  a  fresh 
supply  of  air  in  the  first  cylinder ;  while  the  first  charge 
passed  on  from  the  second  cylinder  to  the  third,  w^here  it 
was  subjected  to  a  still  stronger  pressure,  estimated  to  be 
from  2500  to  3000  pounds.  Of  necessity  the  cylinders  — 
especially  the  last  in  the  series  —  must  be  exceedingly 
strong.  In  fact,  its  wall  of  iron  or  soft  steel  plate  was 
about  five  inches  in  thickness,  with  bands  and  hoops  of 
steel  in  addition. 

From  the  third  cylinder  the  air,  compressed  to  the  last 
extremity,  rushes  out  of  the  valve  into  the  cooling  coil, 
and  from  this  to  the  bottom  of  a  smaller  closed  cylinder, 
w^hich  acts  as  a  purifier.  From  this  it  passes  out  by  a 
pipe  at  the  top,  which  ascends  vertically  about  fifteen 
feet,  then  turns  and  descends  an  equal  distance,  where  it 
finds  vent  by  a  valve  of  very  small  aperture,  and  con- 
trolled by  hand,  first  into  a  small  chamber,  then  through 
another  valve  into  a  larger  chamber,  which  encloses  it. 


EXPOSITION  491 

Here  it  expands,  and  passing  upward  and  then  downward 
through  a  large  pipe  that  encloses  the  smaller  one  just 
described,  finds  vent  at  the  open  end  near  the  purifier. 
There  is  an  intensely  chilling  effect  from  the  expansion 
of  the  compressed  air  in  this  larger  pipe,  by  which  the 
temperature  of  the  incoming  compressed  air  in  the  small 
interior  pipe  is  brought  down  to  the  critical  temperature 
(182  degrees  Fahr.)  at  which  it  is  possible  by  pressure  to 
reduce  the  air  (wiiich  is  like  a  thin  vapor  at  this  stage)  to 
a  liquid.  Accordingly,  after  a  little  while,  air  in  a  liquid 
form  begins  to  trickle  down  through  the  needle  valve 
into  the  smaller  chamber,  then  into  the  larger  one  sur- 
•rounding  the  first.  From  the  faucet  at  the  bottom  of 
this  it  may  finally  be  drawn  in  a  stream.  —  George  J. 
Varney,  in  the  Journal  of  Education. 

2.  It  is  difficult  to  ventilate  a  small  room  without 
making  a  draft,  but,  next  to  the  chinmey,  the  upper  sash 
is  the  simplest  ventilator,  and  should  not  be  immovable, 
as  it  is  in  many  small  houses.  A  board  about  five  inches 
wide  under  the  lower  sash  will  make  a  current  of  air  be- 
tween the  upper  and  lower  sashes,  and,  better  still,  two 
pieces  of  elbow  pipe  with  dampers,  fixed  in  the  board, 
will  throw  a  good  current  of  air  upward  into  the  room. 
Another  ventilator  can  be  made  by  tacking  a  strip  of 
loosely  woven  material  to  the  upper  sash  and  to  the  top 
of  the  window-frame.  When  the  upper  sash  is  dropped, 
the  stuff  is  drawn  taut  over  the  opening,  and,  while  per- 
mitting air  to  pass  through,  breaks  the  current.  —  Mary 
E.  Richmond  :  Friendly  Visiting  among  the  Poor. 

3.  The  construction  of  my  house  had  been  the  subject 
of  much  study.  I  wished  to  attain  a  minimum  of  weight 
and  size  with  a  maximum  of  strength,  warmth,  and 
comfort. 

The  interior  dimensions  of  the  house  were  to  be 
twenty-one  feet  in  length,  twelve  feet  in  width,  and  eight 


492  EXPOSITION 

feet  in  height  from  floor  to  ceiling.  As  finally  completed, 
the  house  consisted  of  an  inner  and  an  outer  shell,  sepa- 
rated by  an  air-space,  formed  by  the  frames  of  the  house 
and  var3dng  from  ten  inches  at  the  sides  to  over  three 
feet  in  the  centre  of  the  roof. 

On  the  outside  of  these  frames  was  attached  the  outer 
air-tight  shell,  composed  of  a  sheathing  of  closely  fitting 
boards  and  two  thicknesses  of  tarred  paper.  To  the  in- 
side of  these  frames  was  fastened  the  inner  shell,  com- 
posed of  thick  trunk  boards,  and  made  air-tight  by  pasting 
all  the  joints  with  heavy  browi^  paper.  This  inner  shell 
was  lined  throughout  with  hea^^y  red  Indian  blankets. 

This  made  the  interior  as  warm  and  cosey  in  appear-, 
ance  as  could  be  desired,  amply  comfortable  for  summer 
and  early-fall  weather.  It  was  still,  however,  not  in  a 
condition  to  protect  us  from  the  indescribable  fury  of 
the  storms  of  the  arctic  winter  night,  and  temperatures 
of  half  a  hundred  degrees  below  zero. 

To  render  it  impregnable  to  these,  a  wall  was  built 
entirely  around  the  house,  abo'ut  four  feet  distant  from  it. 

The  foundation  of  this  wall  was  stones,  turf,  empty 
barrels ;  its  upper  portion  was  built  of  the  wooden  boxes 
containing  my  tinned  supplies,  piled  in  regular  courses 
like  blocks  of  stone.  The  boxes  had  intentionally  been 
made  of  the  same  width  and  depth,  though  of  varying 
lengths,  to  fit  them  for  this  use. 

The  corridor  so  made  was  roofed  with  canvas,  extend- 
ing from  the  side  of  the  house  to  the  top  of  the  wall,  and 
later,  when  the  snow  came,  it,  as  well  as  the  roof  of  the 
house  itself,  was  covered  in  with  snow,  and  the  outside 
of  the  walls  was  thickly  banked  with  the  same  material. 
By  this  arrangement  of  the  boxes  I  avoided  the  necessity 
of  using  any  portion  of  the  house  for  storage;  the  con- 
tents of  every  box  was  immediately  and  conveniently 
accessible,  as  if  on  the  shelves  of  a  cupboard :  and  the 


EXPOSITION  493 

rampart  thus  formed  protected  the  house  in  a  surpris- 
ing degree  from  the  stress  of  the  winter's  cold.  — 
R.  F.  Peary  :  Northward  over  the  ''  Great  Ice  "  (adapted). 

Show  that  each  of  the  precedmg  selections  is 
an  exposition.  Which  selection  makes  use  of 
description,  but  not  of  narration  ?  which  of 
personal  narrative?  which  of  generalized  nar- 
rative ? 

Exercise  137.  (^Theme,)  Write  an  expo- 
sition of  some  machine  or  structure,  indicating 
the  principles  of  its  building  as  affected  by  the 
purpose,  circumstances,  etc.,  of  the  construc- 
tion. If  you  have  yourself  constructed  the 
device,  you  may  find  personal  narration  a  use- 
ful means  of  exposition. 

Read  aloud  the  following : 

1.  Lay  bare  your  arm  and  stretch  it  straight.  Make 
two  ink  dots  half  an  inch  or  an  inch  apart,  exactly 
opposite  the  elbow.  Bend  your  arm,  the  dots  approach 
each  other,  and  are  finally  brought  together.  Let  the 
two  dots  represent  the  two  sides  of  a  crevasse  at  the 
bottom  of  an  ice-fall;  the  bending  of  the  arm  resembles 
the  bending  of  the  ice,  and  the  closing  up  of  the  dots 
resembles  the  closing  of  the  fissures.  —  Tyndall  :  The 
Forms  of  Water. 

2.  It  seems  to  be  the  present  scientific  conclusion  that 
mountains  are  not  formed  so  much  by  volcanic  action  as 
by  the  folds  or  laps  in  the  crust  made  by  the  contraction 
of  the  earth  as  it  grows  older  and  colder.     The  illustra- 


494  EXPOSITION 

tion  used  is  that  of  the  skin  oi*  suiface  of  an  apple.  It 
wrinkles  in  folds  as  the  apple  withers  and  decreases  in 
size ;  and  these  folds  in  the  skin  of  the  apple  correspond 
to  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  our  earth.  —  Van  Dyke  : 
Nature  for  Its  Oivn  Sake. 

3.  Probably  you  know  that  the  stars  are  suns  and  that 
they  look  like'  mere  shining  points  of  light  because  they 
are  so  far  away.  The  nearest  is  so  far  that  a  cannon-shot 
fired  in  Adam's  time  from  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  flying 
continually  with  undiminished  sjDeed,  would  even  now 
hardly  have  started  on  its  journey.  It  would  be  as  if  a 
train  bound  for  another  town  had  just  pulled  well  out  of 
the  station. 

On  a  summer  evening  you  may  see  Arcturus  high  up 
in  the  south  or  southwest  in  June  or  July,  and  farther 
down  in  the  west  in  August  or  September.  You  will 
know  it  by  its  red  color.  That  star  has  been  flying 
straight  ahead  ever  since  astronomers  began  to  observe 
it,  at  such  a  speed  that  it  would  run  from  New  York  to 
Chicago  in  a  small  fraction  of  a  minute.  You  would 
have  to  be  spry  to  rise  from  your  chair,  put  on  your  hat 
and  overcoat  and  gloves  and  go  out  on  the  street  while  it 
was  crossing  the  Atlantic  Ocean  from  New  York  to 
Liverpool.  And  yet  if  you  should  watch  that  star  all 
your  life,  and  live  as  long  as  Methuselah,  you  would  not 
be  able  to  see  that  it  moved  at  all.  The  journey  it  would 
make  in  a  thousand  years  would  be  as  nothing  along- 
side its  distance.  —  Professor  Simon  Newcomb,  in  The 
Youth's  Companion. 

4.  Why  is  the  biniodide  of  mercury  red?  Because 
there  are  contained  in  its  substance  tiny  particles  which 
chemical  analysis  cannot  bring  to  light  and  which  have  the 
power  of  making  it  red.  Without  these  infinitesimally 
small  particles  the  biniodide  of  mercury  would  not  be  red. 
Why  is  this  drop  of  oil,  suspended  in  a  saline  solution 


EXPOSITION  495 

of  equal  density,  spherical  in  shape?  Because  its  sub- 
stance contains  tiny  particles  which  chemical  analysis 
fails  to  reveal,  and  which  have  the  power  of  giving  the 
drop  a  spherical  shape.  Deprived  of  these  infinitesirnally 
small  particles,  the  drop  of  oil  would  be  amorphous,  not 
spherical.  —  F.  Le  Dantec  :  Revue  Philosophique,  May, 
1899,  quoted  by  Lafleur  :  Illustrations  of  Logic. 

Exercise  138.  (Theme.}  Write  an  expo- 
sition of  some  principle  of  natural  science, 
making  it  clear  by  comparisons  cliosen  by 
yourself,  or  experiments  devised  by  yourself. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  The  Monte varchi  household  was  conducted  upon 
the  patriarchal  principle,  once  general  in  Rome,  and  not 
quite  abandoned  even  now,  twenty  years  later  than  the 
date  of  Gouache's  accident.  The  palace  was  a  huge 
square  building  facing  upon  two  streets,  in  front  and  be- 
hind, and  opening  inwards  upon  tw^o  courtyards.  Upon 
the  lower  floor  were  stables,  coach-houses,  kitchens,  and 
offices  innumerable.  Above  these  there  was  built  a  half 
story,  called  a  mezzanine — in  French,  entresol,  contain- 
ing the  quarters  of  the  unmarried  sons  of  the  house,  of 
the  household  chaplain,  and  of  two  or  three  tutors 
employed  in  the  education  of  the  Montevarchi  grand- 
children. Next  above,  came  the  "  piano  nobile,"  or  state 
apartments,  comprising  the  rooms  of  the  prince  and 
princess,  the  dining  room,  and  a  vast  suite  of  reception 
rooms,  each  of  w^hich  opened  into  the  next  in  such  a 
manner  that  only  the  last  was  not  necessarily  a  passage. 
In  the  huge  hall  was  the  dais  and  canopy  with  the  fam- 
ily arms  embroidered  in  colors  once  gaudy  but  now  agree- 


49G  EXPOSITION 

ably  fafled  to  a  softer  tone.  Above  this  floor  was  another, 
occupied  by  the  married  sons,  their  wives  and  children ; 
and  high  over  all,  above  the  cornice  of  the  palace,  were 
the  endless  servants'  quarters  and  the  roomy  garrets.  At 
a  rough  estimate  the  establishment  comprised  over  a 
hundred  persons,  all  living  under  the  absolute  and  des- 
potic authority  of  the  head  of  the  house,  Don  Lotario 
Montevarchi,  Principe  Montevarchi,  and  sole  possessor  of 
forty  or  fifty  other  titles.  From  his  will  and  upon  his 
pleasure  depended  every  act  of  every  member  of  his 
household,  from  his  eldest  son  and  heir,  the  Duca  di 
Bellegra,  to  that  of  Pietro  Paolo,  the  under-cook's  scull- 
ion's boy. —  Crawford:  Sanf  Ilario. 

2.  In  their  present  form,  trusts  are  usually  combina- 
tions of  corporations  previously  existing,  as  corporations 
are  combinations  of  individual  capital.  Twenty  men 
with  an  aggregate  capital  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars 
can  make  cotton  yarn  more  cheaply  than  the  same  men 
with  the  same  capital  can  make  it,  each  building  his  own 
mill;  and  when  they  have  yarh  to  sell  they  can  go  into  a 
market  which  is  steadier  and  better,  because  they  are  act- 
ing together  and  not  in  competition  against  one  another. 
Precisely  in  the  same  way  ten  spinning  companies  can 
save  in  buying  material,  in  operating  expenses  and  in 
other  ways,  if  they  are  all  under  the  same  management ; 
and  they,  too,  avoid  the  mutual  competition  which  de- 
ranges prices. 

That  is  the  theory  of  the  trust.  It  is  exactly  this 
economic  law  which  has  brought  about  the  formation  of 
great  railroad  systems  which,  not  without  great  evils, 
have  rendered  transportation  rapid,  efficient,  and  cheap. 
The  organization  of  a  trust  is  simply  that  of  a  niammoth 
company.  It  has  its  shares  and  its  shareholders,  its  presi- 
dent and  directors  who  are  elected  by  the  shareholders, 
and  its  mills,  shops,  and  machinery.     In  short,  there  is 


EXPOSITION  497 

nothing  to  distinguish  it  from  an  ordinary  business  com- 
pany except  its  size  and  the  scale  of  its  operations. 

The  chief  ground  of  opposition  to  it  is  that  its  mag- 
nitude and  power  enable  it,  if  its  self-seeking  is  un- 
restrained, to  absorb  or  destroy  its  rivals.  The  real 
problem  to  be  solved  in  connection  with  the  trusts,  there- 
fore, is  :  What  is  to  be  done  to  restrain  them  from  exercis- 
ing injurious  control  over  the  whole  business  of  the  country 
without  destroying  the  commercial  enterprise  of  which 
they  are  the  manifestation? —  The  Youth's  Companion. 

What  fact  constituted  the  underlying  princi- 
ple of  the  Montevarchi  household?  According 
to  the  second  selection,  can  the  organization 
of  trusts  be  said  to  be  due  to  any  one  definite 
cause,  or  do  several  causal  principles  underlie  it  ? 
State  the  principles  which  govern  the  method 
of  organizing. 

Exercise  139.  (Theme. ^  Expound  some 
institution  with  which  you  are  familiar.  Show 
the  aim  of  the  organization,  and  the  methods 
of  its  working.  The  following  subjects  are 
merely  suggested :  the  organization  of  an 
American  high  school,  the  management  of  a 
given  business,  a  public  library,  the  Christian 
Endeavor  Society,  the  Epworth  League,  the 
Lend  a  Hand  Society,  a  city  charity,  a  social 
sentiment,  a  country  club. 

Hitherto,    our    expositions    have    concerned 

2k 


498  EXPOSITION 

individuals;  we  now  come  to  generalized  ex- 
position, the  exposition  of  types  or  classes.  A 
type  is  a  member  of  a  class  that  embodies  the 
characteristics  of  the  class. 

Read  the  following  : 

1.  She  was  the  type  of  person  who  would  sit  on  the 
floor  rather  than  on  a  chair,  and  who  administered  to  her 
friends  playful  little  slaps  out  of  sheer  light-hearted- 
ness. — Ellen  Thorneyckoft  Fowler:  A  Double 
Thread. 

2.  Here  is  a  boy  that  loves  to  run,  swim,  kick  football, 
turn  somersets,  make  faces,  whittle,  fish,  tear  his  clothes, 
coast,  skate,  fire  crackers,  blow  squash  "footers,"  cut  his 
name  on  fences,  read  about  Robinson  Crusoe  and  Sinbad 
the  Sailor,  eat  the  widest-angled  slices  of  pie  and  untold 
cakes  and  candies,  crack  nuts  with  his  back  teeth  and 
bite  out  the  better  part  of  another  boy's  apple  with  his 
front  ones,  turn  up  coppers,  "  stick  "  knives,  call  names, 
throw  stones,  knock  off  hats,  set  mousetraps,  chalk  door- 
steps, "cut  behind"  anything  on  wheels  or  runners, 
whistle  through  his  teeth,  "  holler  "  Fire !  on  slight  evi- 
dence, run  after  soldiers,  patronize  an  engine-company,  or, 
in  his  own  words,  "blow  for  tub  No.  11,"  or  whatever  it 
may  be;  —  isn't  that  a  pretty  nice  sort  of  a  boy,  though 
he  has  not  got  anything  the  matter  with  him  that  takes 
the  taste  of  this  world  out?  —  Holmes  :  The  Professor  at 
the  Breakfast  Table. 

3.  And  in  the  men  themselves,  how  widely  severed 
from  all  things  human  is  the  prevailing  type !  — Their 
bloated,  unwashed  flesh  and  unkempt  hair;  their  hideous 
ugliness  of  face,  unreclaimed  by  marks  of  inner  strength 
and  force,  but  revealing  rather,  in  the  relaxation  of  sleep. 


EXPOSITION  499 

a  deepening  of  the  lines  of  weakness,  until  you  read  in 
plainest  characters  the  paralysis  of  the  will.  And  then 
there  are  the  stealthy,  restless  eyes  of  those  who  are 
awake,  eyes  set  in  faces  which  lack  utterly  the  strength  of 
honest  labor  and  even  that  of  criminal  w^it.  —  Wyckoff  : 
The  Workers. 

4.  Multitudes  of  human  faces  passed  you,  deeply 
marked  with  the  lines  of  baser  care.  Human  eyes 
looked  out  of  them  full  of  the  unconscious  tragic  pathos 
of  the  blind,  blind  to  all  vision  but  the  light  of  common 
day ;  eyes  of  the  money  grubbers,  sharpened  to  a  needle's 
point,  yet  incapable  of  deeper  insight  than  the  prospect 
of  gain ;  eyes  of  the  haunted  poor,  furtive  in  the  fear  of 
things,  and  seeing  only  the  incalculable,  threatening  hand 
of  fateful  poverty ;  eyes  of  ragged  children  who  were  sell- 
ing papers  on  the  streets,  their  eyes  old  with  the  age  of 
the  ages,  as  though  there  gazed  through  them  the  un- 
numbered generations  of  the  poor  who  have  endured 
^'  long  labor  unto  aged  breath  " ;  eyes  of  the  rich,  hardened 
by  a  subtler  misery  in  the  artificial  lives  they  lead  in 
sternest  bondage  to  powers  in  whom  all  faith  is  gone, 
but  whom  they  serve  in  utter  fear,  scourged  by  convention 
to  the  acting  of  an  unmeaning  part  in  life,  seeking  above 
all  things  escape  from  self  in  the  fantastic  stimuli  of  fash- 
ion, yet  feeling  ever,  in  the  dark,  the  remorseless  closing 
in  of  the  contracting  prison-walls  of  self-indiilgence  nar- 
rowing daily  the  scope  of  self,  and  threatening  life  with 
its  grimmest  tragedy,  in  the  hopeless,  faithless,  purposeless 
ennui  of  existence.  —  Ihid. 

5.  The  color  of  eyes  seems  to  be  significant  of  tem- 
perament, but  as  regards  beauty  there  is  little  or  nothing 
to  choose  among  colors.  It  is  not  the  eye,  but  the  eyelid, 
that  is  important,  beautiful,  eloquent,  full  of  secrets.  The 
eye  has  nothing  but  its  color,  and  all  colors  are  fine  within 
fine  eyelids.     The  eyelid  has  all  the  form,  all  the  drawing. 


500  EXPOSITION 

all  the  breadth  and  length ;  the  square  of  great  eyes 
irregularly  wide ;  the  large  corners  of  nai'row  eyes ;  the 
pathetic  outward  droop ;  the  delicate  contrary  suggestion 
of  an  upward  turn  at  the  outer  corners,  which  Sir  Joshua 
loved.  —  Mks.  Meynell  :   The  Color  of  Life. 

6.  If  I  wished  to  draw  the  most  universal  and  most 
truly  American  type  possible,  I  should  begin  with  the 
Man  of  Business.  We  see  him  everywhere,  do  we  not, 
and  everywhere  substantially  the  same  ?  To  be  sure,  in 
Boston,  he  generally  speaks  good  English  and  may  be  a 
college  graduate;  in  the  Far  West  he  is  apt  to  be  rough 
in  manner  and  of  cosmopolitan  extraction  ;  in  Chicago  he 
is  overflowing  with  a  joyous  confidence  in  the  city  of  his 
choice  ;  in  the  South  he  has  a  certain  dignified  slowness, 
a  pride  of  caste,  whatever  be  his  occupation,  and  a  rooted 
hatred  of  "  niggers  " ;  and  everywhere  he  has  one  great 
tie  of  common  humanity,  —  business.  See  him  on  a 
street-corner  waiting  for  a  car,  absorbed  as  Archimedes. 
Does  he  look  at  sun,  moon,  and  stars?  His  eyes  are 
turned  within.  He  sees  nothing  but  pools  and  combina- 
tions, stocks,  bonds,  mortgages,  bulls,  bears,  corners, 
shorts,  margins.  His  face  is  wire-drawn,  anxious,  does 
not  respond  to  yours  unless  he  sees  business  in  your  eye. 
Fortunate,  if  he  can  go  home  to  his  slippers  and  paper, 
or  his  prayer-meeting,  and  not  dream^  all  night  of  what 
has  filled  his  thoughts  all  day.  So  far  as  the  forgetting 
of  all  Gods  but  Mammon  goes,  this  gentleman  is  as 
Epicurean  as  Epicurus;  but  has  he  the  least  idea  of 
pleasure  in  any  sense  of  the  word?  That  is  the  bitterest 
irony  of  his  lot,  that  he  accumulates  and  accumulates  — 
and  what  for?  The  little  delights  of  life  are  spoiled  for 
him  by  absorption  in  business,  the  great  seem  mere  ex- 
travagance ;  and  truly  the  last  condition  of  that  man  is 
worse  than  the  first.  —  Bradford:  Ti/pes  of  American 
Character, 


EXPOSITION  501 

All  these  six  expositions,  except  one,  expound 
types  of  persons.  Enumerate  the  types  from 
memory.  In  which  selection  are  several  sub- 
types set  forth?  Which  of  the  selections  use 
generalized  narration  ?  Which  description  ? 
Why  is  the  fifth  selection  placed  here  rather 
.  than  among  examples  of  generalized  description? 

Exercise  140.  (Theme.}  Write  an  expo- 
sition of  some  distinct  type  of  humanity  with 
which  you  are  familiar  —  preferably  a  pleasant 
type.  Use  generalized  description  and  narra- 
tion as  effectively  as  you  can. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  One  of  the  hardest  things  in  this  world  is,  to  see 
the  difference  between  real  dangers  and  imaginary  ones. 
—  Hawthorne  :  The  Three  Golden  Apples. 

2.  These  idlers  are  to  be  put  in  the  same  category 
with  savages.  They  live  under  the  fundamental  charac- 
teristic of  savagery,  namely,  improvidence.  Our  young- 
man  of  leisure  has  a  rich  father,  and  the  African  has  his 
perennial  banana,  and,  upon  the  whole,  rather  a  surer 
outlook.  —  T.  T.  Hunger  :  On  the  Threshold. 

3.  I  was  just  going  to  say,  when  I  was  interrupted, 
that  one  of  the  many  ways  of  classifying  minds  is  under 
the  heads  of  arithmetical  and  algebraical  intellects.  AH 
economical  and  practical  wisdom  is  an  extension  or  vari- 
ation of  the  following  arithmetical  formula :  2  +  2  =  4. 
Every  philosophical  proposition  has  the  more  general 
character  of  the  expression  a  +  h  =  c.  We  are  mere 
operatives,  empirics,  and  egotists,  until  we  learn  to  think 


502  EXPOSITION 

in  letters  instead  of  figures.  —  Holmes:  Autocrat  of  the 
Breakfast  Table, 

4.  I  think  that  no  one  so  utterly  forfeits  his  character 
for  honor,  as  one  who  in  anyway  gambles.  Betting  is  the 
most  vulgar  of  all  vulgar  things.  To  put  the  money  of 
another  man  in  your  pocket  as  the  result  of  a  wager  or  a 
game  of  chance,  is  something  that  no  self-respecting  man 
will  do.  ^'But  do  they  not  do  it?"  you  ask.  ISTo;  the 
habit  pats  one  out  of  the  class  known  as  gentlemen. —  • 
T.  T.  Hunger  :  Lamps  and  Paths. 

5.  The  same  book  may  be  read  in  entirely  different 
ways  and  with  entirely  different  results.  One  may,  for 
instance,  read  Shakespeare's  historical  plays  simply  for 
the  story  element  which  runs  through  them,  and  for  the 
interest  which  the  skilful  use  of  that  element  excites; 
and  in  such  a  reading  there  will  be  distinct  gain  for  the 
reader.  This  is  the  way  in  which  a  healthy  boy  gener- 
ally reads  these  plays  for  the  first  time.  From  suCh  a 
reading  one  will  get  information  and  refreshment ;  more 
than  one  English  statesman  has  confessed  that  he  owed 
his  knowledge  of  certain  periods  of  English  history 
largely  to  Shakespeare.  On  the  other  hand,  one  may  read 
these  plays  for  the  joy  of  the  art  that  is  in  them,  and  for 
the  enrichment  which  comes  from  contact  with  the  deep 
and  tumultuous  life  which  throbs  through  them ;  and 
this  is  the  kind  of  reading  which  produces  culture,  the 
reading  which  means  enlargement  and  ripening.  —  H.  W. 
Mabie  :  Books  and  Culture. 

6.  If  I  were  writing  about  the  rich,  T  should  be  inclined 
to  divide  them,  according  to  their  attitude  toward  life, 
into  workers  and  parasites,  but  this  classification  will 
serve  for  the  poor  as  well.  The  motto  of  the  worker  is, 
"  I  owe  the  world  a  life,"  and  the  motto  of  the  parasite 
is,  "The  world  owes  me  a  living."  When  the  parasite 
happens  to  be  poor  we  call  him  a  pauper ;  but  there  is  a 


EXPOSITION  503 

world  of  difference  between  poverty  and  pauperism.  The 
poor  man  may  become  destitute  through  stress  of  circum- 
stances, and  be  forced  to  accept  charity,  but  your  true 
pauper,  be  he  rich  or  poor,  has  the  parasitic  habit  of 
mind.  When  we  ask  ourselves  then,  Who  are  the  poor? 
we  must  answer  that  they  include  widely  divergent  types 
of  character,  —  the  selfish  and  the  unselfish,  the  noble 
and  the  mean,  workers  and  parasites  —  and  that,  in  going 
among  them,  we  must  be  prepared  to  meet  human  beings 
differing  often  from  ourselves,  it  may  be,  in  trivial  and 
external  things,  but  like  ourselves  in  all  else.  —  Mary 
E.  Richmond  :  Friendly  Visiting  among  the  Poor. 

7.  I  read  in  the  morning's  paper,  young  gentlemen,  a 
pitiful  story  of  a  woman  trying  to  throw  herself  from  the 
bridge.  You  may  recall  one  like  it  in  Hood's  Bridge  of 
Sighs.  The  report  was  headed :  "  To  hide  her  shame."  ■ 
*'  Her  shame  ?  "  AVhy,  gentlemen,  at  that  very  moment, 
in  bright  and  bewildering  rooms,  the  arms  of  Lothario  ^ 
and  Lovelace  ^  were  encircling  your  sisters'  waists  in  the  in- 
toxicating waltz.  These  men  go  unwhipped  of  an  epithet. 
They  are  even  enticed  and  flattered  by  the  mothers  of  the 
girls.  Bat,  for  all  that,  they  do  not  bear  without  abuse 
the  name  of  gentlemen,  and  Sidney  and  Bayard  and  Hal- 
lam  would  scorn  their  profanation  and  betrayal  of  the 
name.  —  George  William  Curtis:  Ars  Recte  Vivendi, 

8.  With  these  eccentric  and  most  unfashionable  ideas 
in  my  mind,  I  have  roughly  tabulated  some  of  the  leading 
occupations  and  professions  in  what  I  conceive  to  be  the 
order  of  their  intrinsic  worth,  having  regard  to  three 
elements,  —  their  operation  on  the  man  himself,  their  use- 
fulness to  mankind,  and  the  prospect  of  success  which 

1  Lothario,  a  character  of  Rowe  the  dramatist ;  Lovelace, 
a  character  of  Richardson  the  novelist.  Both  illustrate  the 
type  of  "  fine  gentlemen  "  who  are  heartless  libertines. 


504  EXPOSITION 

they  afford.  I.  Callings  which,  although  unproductive, 
are  immediately  and  directly  beneficial  both  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  to  the  community ;  such  as,  —  (1)  Medicine 
and  Surgery;  (2)  Education ;  (3)  Literature;  (4)  Art; 
(5)  The  Merchant  Navy ;  (6)  The  Indian  Civil  Service ; 

(7)  The  Clerical  Profession. 

II.  Callings  which  are  directly  productive ;  such  as,  — 

(8)  Agriculture;  (9)  Manufactures  of  necessary  and  use- 
ful articles. 

III.  Callings  which  are  only  mediately  or  indirectly 
productive;  such  as,  —  (10)  Commerce;  (11)  Trade; 
(12)  Engineering  (civil  and  mechanical)  ;  (13)  Archi- 
tecture and  Building;  (14)  Banking ;  (15)  Printing. 

TV .  Callings  which  are  still  more  remote  from  pro- 
duction;  such  as, —  (16)  Agencies  of  all  kinds,  e.g. 
•  Stockbroking ;  (17)  The  Law;  (18)  The  Civil  Service; 
(19)  Clerkly  work  of  all  kinds. 

V.  Callings  which  are  neither  directly  nor  indirectly 
productive;  such  as, —  (20)  Manufactures  of  luxuries 
and  non-essentials;  (21)  The  Navy;  (22)  The  Army; 
(23)  The  Stage.  —  W.  T.  S.  Hewett  :  Notes  for  Boys. 

In  each  of  these  seven  examples  more  than 
one  type  of  person  or  thing  is  mentioned  ; 
point  out  how  this  is  true.  The  process  of 
arranging  by  types  or  by  classes  is  called  clas- 
sification. In  these  examples  we  have  exposi- 
tion by  classification. 

Exercise  141.  {Theme, ^  Write  an  expo- 
sition which  shall  classify  persons  or  things. 
Suggested  subjects  :  A  classification  (humorous 
or  serious)  of  students  ;  kinds  of  girls  ;  kinds 


EXPOSITION  505 

of  boys  ;  species  of  the  genus  "  Beauty "  ; 
varieties  of  ghost ;  ways  of  getting  a  lesson ; 
ways  of  being  disagreeable. 

Read  aloud  the  following  : 

1.  Manners  are  the  happy  ways  of  doing  things;  each 
one  a  stroke  of  genius  or  of  love,  —  now  repeated  and 
liardened  into  usage.  —  Emerson  :  Behavior. 

2.  Yon  Moltke,  said  Von  Bunsen,  regarded  the  battle 
not  as  a  victory  for  him,  but  as  a  defeat.  He  has  only 
one  notion  of  a  battle,  and  that  is  to  capture,  not  to  kill, 
the  enemy.  A  dead  enemy  does  not  count  with  him.  He 
shoots  only  in  order  to  capture,  and  every  man  killed  is 
a  leaf  taken  from  the  victor's  chaplet. 

3.  Show  me  a  man  or  woman  whose  reading  has  made 
him  or  her  tolerant,  patient,  candid,  a  truth -seeker  and  a 
truth-lover,  then  I  will  show  you  a  well-read  man  or 
woman.  —  John  Morley! 

4.  You  may  already  have  a  sufficiently  ill  opinion  of 
poverty,  but  you  may  not  understand  that  one  is  already 
poverty-stricken  if  his  habits  are  not  thrifty.  Every  day 
I  see  young  men  —  well  dressed,  with  full  purses  and 
something  of  inheritance  awaiting  them — as  plainly 
foredoomed  to  poverty  as  if  its  rags  hung  about  them. — 
T.  T.  Monger  :  On  the  Threshold. 

5.  But  what  is  the  test  of  a  river?  Who  shall  say? 
"  The  power  to  drown  a  man,"  replies  the  river  darkly. 
But  rudeness  is  not  argument.  Rather  shall  we  say  that 
the  power  to  work  a  good  undershot  wheel,  without  being 
dammed  up  all  night  in  a  pond,  and  leaving  a  tidy  back- 
stream  to  spare  at  the  bottom  of  the  orchard,  is  a  fair 
certificate  of  riverhood.  —  Blackmore  :    Crocl'ey^'s  Hole. 

6.  Merchants  of  the  greatest  executive  ability  and 
highest  efficiency  are  able  to  secure  the   maximum  of 


506  EXPOSITION 

cheap  production  through  the  legitimate  factory  system. 
Men  of  less  business  ability,  in  order  to  compete  success- 
fully, avoid  the  factory  system  of  production  and  make 
use  of  the  sweat  shops  instead.  The  sweat  shop  is,  there- 
fore, in  a  single  word,  an  evasion,  under  the  stress  of 
competition,  of  the  factory  system  of  production.  — Pros- 
pectus of  the  Neic  York  Consumers'  League. 

7.  Nothing  distinguishes  the  truly  educated  man  or 
woman  from  men  and  women  who  are  not  educated,  so 
much  as  the  extent,  variety,  and  quality  of  their  marginal 
interests  and  activities.  How  does  a  young  man  spend 
his  hours?  To  what  interests  does  he  turn  for  pastime 
or  anmsement  when  the  stress  of  the  day  or  week  is  over  ? 
—  Professor  William  Henry  Hudson:  The  Study  of 
English  Literature. 

8.  Many  a  fortune  has  melted  away  in  the  hesitating 
utterance  of  the  placable  "  Yes,"  which  might  have  been 
saved  by  the  unhesitating  utterance  of  the  implacable 
"No!"  Indeed,  in  business,  the  perfection  of  grit  is 
this  power  of  saying  "No,"  and  saying  it  with  such 
wrathful  emphasis  that  the  whole  rac&  of  vampires  and 
harpies  are  scared  from  your  counting-room,  and  your 
reputation  as  unenterprising,  unbearable  niggard  is  fully 
established  among  all  borrowers  of  money  never  meant 
to  be  repaid,  and  all  projectors  of  schemes  intended  for 
the  benefit  of  the  projectors  alone.  —  Whipple  :  Success 
and  Its  Conditions. 

9.  That  man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  education,  who 
has  been  so  trained  in  youth  that  his  body  is  the  ready 
servant  of  his  will,  and  does  with  ease  and  pleasure  all 
the  work  that,  as  a  mechanism,  it  is  capable  of;  whose 
intellect  is  a  clear,  cold,  logic  engine,  wnth  all  its  parts  of 
equal  strength,  and  in  smooth  working  order;  ready, like 
a  steam  engine,  to  be  turned  to  any  kind  of  work,  and 
spin  the  gossamers  as  well  as  forge  the  anchors  of  the 


EXPOSITION  507 

mind;  whose  mind  is  stored  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
great  and  fundamental  truths  of  Nature  and  of  the  laws 
of  her  operations ;  one  who,  no  stunted  ascetic,  is  full  of 
life  and  fire,  but  whose  passions  are  trained  to  come  to 
heel  by  a  vigorous  will,  the  servant  of  a  tender  con- 
science ;  who  has  learned  to  love  all  beauty,  whether  of 
Nature  or  of  art,  to  hate  all  vileness,  and  to  respect 
others  as  himself.  —  Huxley:  Lay  Sermons. 

10.  The  essence  of  tragedy  is  the  collision  between 
the  individual  will,  impulse,  or  action,  and  society  in 
some  form  of  its  organization,  or  those  unwritten  laws 
of  life  which  we  call  the  laws  of  God.  The  tragic  charac- 
ter is  always  a  lawbreaker,  but  not  always  a  criminal;  he 
is,  indeed,  often  the  servant  of  a  new  idea  which  sets  him, 
as  in  the  case  of  Guido  Bruno,^  in  opposition  to  an  estab- 
lished order  of  knowledge  ;  he  is  sometimes,  as  in  the  case 
of  Socrates,  a  teacher  of  truths  which  make  him  a  menace 
to  lower  conceptions  of  citizenship  and  narrower  ideas  of 
personal  life  ;  or  he  is,  as  in  the  case  of  Othello  and  Paoli,^ 
the  victim  of  passions  which  overpower  the  will  and  throw 
the  whole  life  out  of  relation  to  its  moral  and  social  en- 
vironment.—  H.  W.  Mabie  :  Books  and  Culture. 

11.  What  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  the  essence  of  any 
true  book?  The  personality  of  which  it  is  the  outgrowth 
and  expression.  Now,  personality  is  a  magnetic  thing,  — 
a  mysterious  force  which  cannot  be  weighed,  or  measured, 
or  explained,  but  which  none  the  less  flows  in  as  a  subtle 
power  upon  us,  sweeping  through  every  channel  of  our 
natures,  and  pervading  the  innermost  recesses  of  our 
minds.     How  vast  a  part  this  generally  unacknowledged 

1  Giordano  Bruno,  Italian  philosopher  burned  at  the  stake, 
1600. 

2  Paolo  of  Rimini,  described  by  Dante  as  punished  for 
his  illicit  love  by  eternal  unrest  in  the  infernal  whirlwind. 


508  EXPOSITION 

element  plays  in  that  growth  and  expansion  of  our  indi- 
vidualities, which  are  the  most  living  and  permanent  re- 
sults of  what  we  call  culture,  we  can  never  perhaps  even 
guess;  but  this  much  at  least  we  know  from  experience, 
—  that  contact  with  a  really  great  personality  is  one  of 
the  most  profoundly  important  and  decisive  educative 
influences  that  can  ever  be  brought  to  bear  upon  our 
lives.  There  is  no  disguising  the  fact  —  unpleasant  as 
it  may  perchance  sound  in  the  statement  —  that  in  most 
of  us  this  power  of  personality  is  very  imperfectly  de- 
veloped.—  Professor  William  Henry  Hudson:  The 
Study  of  English  Literature. 

12.  One  of  the  great  groups  or  ^^ orders"  into  which 
insects  are  divided  is  called  Lepidoptera  (derived  from 
two  Greek  words  meaning  scaly-wings).  This  group 
differs  from  all  other  insects  by  having  in  the  perfect 
stage  a  long,  hollow,  thread-like  tongue,  through  which 
fluids  may  be  sucked  or  rather  pumped  up,  and  which, 
when  not  in  use,  is  coiled  up  like  a  watch-spring ;  and  by 
having  four  rather  broad  wings  covered  with  colored 
scales  overlying  one  another  in  rows4ike  shingles,  slates, 
or  tiles  on  a  roof.  These  insects  undergo  striking  changes 
in  the  course  of  their  lives  ;  for  they  are  hatched  from  the 
egg  as  crawling  worms  having  a  globular  head  with  bit- 
ing jaws,  and  a  body  supported  not  only  by  the  three 
pairs  of  short  horny  legs  found  in  the  young  of  most 
insects,  but  by  several,  generally  five,  pairs  of  stumpy, 
fleshy  legs  behind  them;  while  the  tw^o  joints  of  the  body 
next  following  those  with  horny  legs  and  some  other 
joints  near  the  hinder  end  never  have  any;  from  this 
they  change  into  a  pupa  or  chrysalis,  a  mummy-like 
object  with  the  legs,  wings,  and  other  members  swathed 
upon  the  breast  and  with  no  possible  motion  except  in 
the  wriggling  of  the  joints  of  the  abdomen  or  hinder  end 
of  the  body;  from  this  temporary  prison  escapes  in  die 


EXPOSITION  509 

time  the  winged  creature  of  beauty  which  adds  such  a 
charm  to  the  summer  landscape. 

Butterflies  differ  from  other  Lepidoptera  by  having 
clubbed  or  knotted  antennae  in  their  perfect  stage,  and 
generally  in  their  transformations,  for  most  of  them  are 
hung  up  by  silken  cords  attached  to  hooks  on  the  tail, 
and  sometimes  also  by  a  girth  around  the  waist;  they 
are  rarely  enclosed  in  cocoons,  or,  if  so,  the  chrysalis  is 
in  most  cases  also  supported  within ;  while  moths  (i.e. 
all  other  Lepidoptera)  usually  construct  silken  cocoons, 
often  of  very  close  texture,  or  make  cells  in  the  ground, 
in  either  of  which  cases  the  chrysalis  lies  loosely  within 
or  attached  by  the  tail  only.  Butterflies  usually  fly  by 
day,  moths  usually  by  night.  Butterflies  usually  rest 
with  their  wings  erect ;  moths  usually  with  wings  flatly 
expanded  or  sloping  downward  on  either  side  like  a  tent. 

—  ScuDDER :    Brief  Guide  to  Butterflies  of  the  Northern 
United  States  and  Canada. 

13.  "  But  you  said  just  now  that  you  sometimes  forgot 
that  your  sempstress  was  not  a  lady.  Just  what  did  you 
mean  by  that  ?  '* 

Mrs.  Makely  hesitated.     "  I  meant  —  I  suppose  I  meant 

—  that  she  had  not  the  surroundings  of  a  lady ;  the  social 
traditions." 

"  Then  it  has  something  to  do  with  social  as  well  as 
moral  qualities  —  with  ranks  and  classes?" 

"  Classes,  yes ;  but,  as  you  know,  we  have  no  ranks  in 
America."  The  Altrurian  took  ofl:  his  hat  and  rubbed 
an  imaginable  perspiration  from  his  forehead.  He  sighed 
deeply.     "  It  is  all  very  difficult." 

"Yes,"  Mrs.  Makely  assented,  "I  suppose  it  is.  All 
foreigners  find  it  so.  In  fact  it  is  something  that  you 
have  to  live  into  the  notion  of;  it  can't  be  ex- 
plained." 

"  Well,  then,  my  dear  madam,  will  you  tell  me  without 


510  EXPOSITION 

further  question  what  you  understand  by  a  lady,  and  let 
me  live  into  the  notion  of  it  at  my  leisure  ?  " 

"  I  will  do  my  best,"  said  Mrs.  Makely.  "  But  it  would 
be  so  much  easier  to  tell  you  who  was  or  who  was  not  a 
lady  !  However,  your  acquaintance  is  so  limited  yet  that 
I  must  try  to  do  something  in  the  abstract  and  impersonal 
for  you.  In  the  first  place,  a  lady  must  be  above  the 
sordid  anxieties  in  every  way.  She  need  not  be  very 
rich,  but  she  must  have  enough,  so  that  she  need  not  be 
harassed  about  making  both  ends  meet,  when  she  ought 
to  be  devoting  herself  to  her  social  duties.  The  time  is 
past  with  us  when  a  lady  could  look  after  the  dinner, 
and  perhaps  cook  part  of  it  herself,  and  then  rush  in  to 
receive  her  guests,  and  do  the  amenities.  She  must  have 
a  certain  kind  of  house,  so  that  her  entourage  won't  seem 
cramped  and  mean,  and  she  nmst  have  nice  frocks,  of 
course,  and  plenty  of  them.  She  needn't  be  of  the  smart 
set ;  that  isn't  at  all  necessary ;  but  she  can't  afford  to  be 
out  of  the  fashion.  Of  course  she  must  have  a  certain 
training.  She  must  have  cultivated  tastes;  she  must 
know  about  art,  and  literature,  and  music,  and  all  those 
kind  of  things,  and  though  it  isn't  necessary  to  go  in  for 
anything  in  particular,  it  won't  hurt  her  to  have  a  fad  or 
two.  The  nicest  kind  of  fad  is  charity ;  and  people  go 
in  for  that  a  great  deal.  I  think  sometimes  they  use  it 
to  work  up  with,  and  there  are  some  who  use  religion  in 
the  same  way ;  I  think  it's  horrid  ;  but  it's  perfectly  safe ; 
you  can't  accuse  them  of  doing  it.  I'm  happy  to  say, 
though,  that  mere  church  association  doesn't  count  socially 
so  much  as  it  used  to.  Charity  is  a  great  deal  more 
insidious.  But  you  see  how  hard  it  is  to  define  a  lady. 
So  much  has  to  be  left  to  the  nerves,  in  all  these  things ! 
And  then  it's  changing  all  the  time  ;  Europe's  coming  in, 
and  the  old  American  ideals  are  passing  away.  Things 
that  people  did  ten  years  ago  would  be  impossible  now, 


EXPOSITION  511 

or  at  least  ridiculous.  You  wouldn't  be  considered  vul- 
gar, quite,  but  you  would  certainly  be  considered  a  back 
number,  and  that's  almost  as  bad.  Really,"  said  Mrs. 
Makely,  "  I  don't  believe  I  can  tell  you  what  a  lady  is." 
—  Ho  WELLS  :  A  Traveller  from  Altruria. 

What  things  are  actually  defined  in  the  pre- 
ceding selections?  Point  out.  the  definitions 
which  are  couched  in  precise,  scientific  terms, 
and  those  which  are  more  loosely  but  happily 
worded,  producing  literary  effect.  Which  se- 
lections define  (in  part)  by  telling  what  a  thing 
is  not  ?  Commit  to  memory  selections  3,  4, 
and  9. 

Exercise  142.  (^Theme,')  Write  an  expo- 
sition of  one  of  the  following,  telling  (1)  what 
the  thing  is  not,  (2)  what  it  is,  (3)  what  it  is 
like  :  courage  ;  work ;  plagiarism  ;  fickleness ; 
a  raccoon ;  a  canary.  Or,  if  you  prefer,  write 
an  original  exposition,  the  object  of  which  shall 
be  to  define  any  of  the  things  defined  in  the 
thirteen  selections. 


CHAPTER   IV 

ARGUMENTATION 

In  strictness,  argumentation  is  the  process  of 
convincing  another  person,  by  words,  of  the 
truth  of  a  given  proposition  ;  but  in  a  broader 
sense  it  includes  persuasion,  the. art  of  moving 
another  to  an  act  which  the  speaker  wishes  him 
to  perform.  Usually  it  is  understood  that  the 
person  who  argues  for  a  given  proposition  is 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  it;  he  should  not 
pretend  to  be  convinced  unless  he  is  convinced. 
It  is  true  that  lawyers  are  not  called  to  account 
very  severely  in  this  matter  ;  they  are  expected 
to  do  the  best  they  can  for  guilty  clients,  and 
if  they  declare  themselves  sure  of  the  innocence 
of  a  client  whom  everybody  else  believes  to  be 
guilty,  their  word  is  not  too  closely  questioned. 
But  lawyers  of  high  character  do  not  lie  de- 
liberately, and  such  as  Abraham  Lincoln  often 
refuse  to  say  even  what  can  be  said  in  extenua- 
tion of  guilty  persons. 

Argumentation  is  a  very  important  kind  of 
composition,  so  important  that  we  shall  do  well 
512 


ARGUMENTATION  513 

to  consider  seriously  what  our  attitude  toward 
it  should  be. 

In  law,  unscrupulous  men  use  the  devices 
of  argument  to  accomplish  evil  ends ;  they 
deceive  juries  and  even  judges.  If  it  were 
only  to  be  armed  against  such  men,  argu- 
mentation must  be  a  serious  study  of  every 
honest  lawyer.  Unsound  argument  is  indeed 
common  everywhere.  In  a  republic  the  politi- 
cal trickster  is  ever  using  it  to  the  furthering  of 
his  ambitions.  Likewise  it  is  common  enough 
among  men  of  honest  purpose,  for  very  few 
men  in  any  generation  are  always  sound  in 
their  views.  Argument  between  two  men  of 
strong  intellect  and  character,  like  Webster 
and  Calhoun,  is  an  education  to  the  listeners. 
Of  these  two  men  Whipple,  the  essayist,  writes 
as  follows,  praising  '-'•  as  specimens  of  pure 
mental  manliness,  their  speeches  in  the  Senate, 
in  1833,  on  the  question  whether  or  not  the 
Constitution  is  a  compact  between  sovereign 
States.  Give  Mr.  Calhoun  those  two  words, 
'compact'  and  'sovereign,'  and  he  conducts 
you  logically  to  Nullification^  and  to  all  the 

1  Nullification.    The  act  of  an  individual  state  in  nullify- 
ing a  federal  law.     As  early  as  1832  South  Carolina  refused 
to  allow  certain  United  States  (revenue)  laws  to  be  executed 
in  her  territory. 
2l 


514  ARGUMENTATION 

consequences  of  Nullification.  .  .  .  Mr.  Web- 
ster grappled  with  the  argument  and  with  the 
man  ;  and  it  is  curious  to  watch  that  spectacle 
of  a  meeting  between  two  such  hostile  minds. 
Each  is  confident  of  the  strength  of  his  own 
position  ;  each  is  eager  for  a  close  hug  of  dia- 
lectics. Far  from  avoiding  the  point,  they 
drive  directly  towards  it,  clearing  their  essen- 
tial propositions  from  mutual  misconception  by 
the  sharpest  analysis  and  exactest  statement. 
To  get  their  minds  near  each  other,  to  think 
close  to  the  subject,  to  feel  the  grinding  con- 
tact of  pure  intellect  with  pure  intellect,  and, 
as  spiritual  beings,  to  conduct  the  war  of  reason 
with  spiritual  weapons,  —  this  is  their  ambition. 
Conventionally  courteous  to  each  other,  they 
are  really  in  the  deadliest  antagonism ;  for 
their  contest  is  the  tug  and  strain  of  soul  with 
soul,  and  each  feels  that  defeat  would  be  worse 
than  death.  No  nervous  irritation,  no  hard 
words,  no  passionate  recriminations,  no  flinch- 
ing from  unexpected  difficulties,  no  substitution 
of  declamatory  sophisms  for  rigorous  infer- 
ences,—  but  close,  calm,  ruthless  grapple  of 
thought  with  thought." 

For  students,  the  chief  value  of  argumenta- 
tion   comes   in    preparing   written    arguments 


ARGUMENTATION  515 

to  be  delivered  orally  in  debates.  Debate  is 
always  the  means  of  bringing  out  more  phases 
of  a  question  than  any  one  student  would  be 
likely  to  discover.  It  is  a  great  sharpener  of 
the  wits. 

But  writing  arguments  or  participating  in 
debates  may  have  a  bad  effect  on  the  student 
unless  he  is  extremely  cautious.  "  If  we  give 
way  to  the  love  of  argument  for  the  mere  sake 
of  argument,  we  shall  be  in  a  worse  condition 
than  that  of  the  mere  passive  spectator.  The 
born  arguer,  as  most  of  us  know  by  experience, 
will  take  nothing  on  trust,  not  even  himself  ; 
he  can  say  nothing  without  immediately  turn- 
ing upon  himself  with  a  petulant.  Why  did  I 
say  that  rather  than  the  opposite?  He  can  do 
nothing  without  inquiring  of  his  teased  self, 
Why  do  I  do  that  ?  or.  Should  I  do  this  ?  If 
anyone  else  makes  the  most  innocent  assertion, 
he  contradicts  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  taking 
the  other  side.  Indeed,  the  love  of  arguing,  of 
weighing  the  pros  and  cons  of  every  question 
that  meets  us,  may  become  a  disease,  a  recog- 
nized disease.  Even  when  the  passion  for  argu- 
mentation does  not  reach  morbidity,  it  remains 
a  state  of  mind  to  be  sedulously  avoided. 
Fitzgerald's  complaint :  — 


516  ARGUMENTATION 

'  Myself  when  young  did  eagerly  frequent 
Doctor  and  Saint,  and  heard  gi-eat  argument 
About  it  and  about ;  but  ever  more 
Came  out  by  the  same  door  wherein  I  went.'  ^ 

—  this  complaint  we  hear  very  frequently  in 
these  days." 

The  enthusiastic  young  debater,  may,  you 
see,  become  something  of  what  is  called  "a 
crank."  He  becomes  difficult  to  live  with. 
He  consumes  the  hour  in  the  classroom,  steal- 
ing time  not  in  the  desire  for  truth  but  in  the 
desire  for  victory.  But  even  a  worse  thing 
may  befall  him.  He  may  form  strong  convic- 
tions on  subjects  so  broad  that  he  has  no  right 
to  even  an  opinion  on  them.  There  are  proba- 
bly middle-aged  men  who  vote  as  they  do  to-day 
not  because  mature  thinking  has  led  them  to 
their  policy,  but  because  they  took  sides  vehe- 
mently in  some  school  debate,  thirty  years  ago. 

There  are,  it  is  true,  subjects  on  which  the 
student  has  a  right  not  merely  to  an  opinion, 
but  to  a  conviction  ;  and  every  new  subject  on 
which  he  gains  a  right  to  an  opinion,  by  mas- 
tering it,  marks  a  real  step  in  his  education. 
Remember  Phillips  Brooks's  words  about   the 

1  Fletcher  and  Carpenter :  IntroducMon  to  Theme  Writ- 
ing^  p.  113. 


ARGUMENTATION  517 

importance  of  ''graduation  into  opinions" 
(p.  43).  In  matters  concerning  the  relation  of 
pupils  to  each  other  and  to  the  school,  students 
have  a  right  to  an  opinion,  and  such  matters 
make  admirable  subjects  for  argument  or  de- 
bate. On  great  questions  of  politics  and  soci- 
ology it  is  legitimate  for  high-school  students  to 
have  an  opinion,  but  probably  not  a  conviction. 
Many  of  you  will  feel  like  disputing  this  at 
once,  but  let  us  proceed  cautiously.  The  sense 
of  right  and  wrong  as  to  matters  of  politics  and 
sociology  is  as  strong  in  the  youth  as  in  the 
man  —  sometimes  stronger.  He  has  a  God- 
given  right  to  his  conviction  that  wrong  is 
wrong,  whether  defended  by  force  or  not ;  but 
as  to  particular*  questions  of  right  and  wrong, 
particular  questions  of  policy,  the  case  is  differ- 
ent. Study  as  hard  as  he  may  for  two  months 
or  six,  read  as  widely  and  intelligently  as  he 
can,  all  that  the  high-school  student  can  do 
is  to  echo  those  opinions  which  seem  to  his 
active  imagination  the  soundest.  Ten  years 
afterwards,  all  may  look  different;  and  mean- 
time the  knoivledge  which  the  youth  acquired 
may  be  invaluable  to  the  man  as  soil  on  which 
broader  experience  may  help  a  sound,  living 
conviction  to  grow. 


518  ARGUMENTATION 

There  might  properly  be  instituted  in  every 
secondary  school  two  kinds  of  contest,  of  which 
one  might  be  called  true  debate,  the  other 
"expository  debate."  In  debate  proper  the 
participants  would  be  expected  to  speak  from 
conviction.  A  great  deal  of  pains  would  be 
taken  to  get  a  subject  sufficiently  limited  in 
nature  to  permit  its  being  mastered,  and  equal 
pains  would  be  taken  to  secure  speakers  who 
had  formed  convictions  on  the  subject.  Pre- 
liminary candidates  would  spend  much  time  in 
studying  the  subject  and  discussing  it  infor- 
mally, before  deciding  whether  they  could  con- 
scientiously defend  one  side  as  their  own.  The 
true  debate  would  more  often  concern  some  im- 
mediate issue  of  school  life,  or  some  especial 
interest  of  young  people,  than  economic  or 
sociological  problems.  Not  so  the  "  expository 
debate."  This  would  select  any  subject  in 
which  the  speakers  were  interested,  as  for  ex- 
ample city  ownership  of  public  franchises ;  or, 
compulsory  arbitration  of  labor  disputes.  A 
definite  proposition  to  discuss  would  be  formed, 
sides  would  be  taken,  and  each  debater  would 
investigate  some  phase  of  the  question  and  pre- 
sent whatever  could  be  said  for  (or  against)  it. 
It    would   be   understood    that    every   debater 


AUGUMENTATION  519 

reserved  the  right  of  final  judgment  on  the 
whole  question.  The  judges  would  award  the 
victory  to  the  side  which  presented  the  best 
arguments  in  the  best  manner.  The  speakers 
would  go  home  without  the  unpleasant  sen- 
sation of  having  said  (or  implied)  a  score 
of  times,  ''  We  maintain  that  this  great  ques- 
tion will  finally  be  settled  to  the  discomfiture 
of  those  who  to-night  are  our  opponents "  — 
whereas  he  either  believed  no  such  thing,  or, 
like  Sentimental  Tommy,  believed  it  only  be- 
cause the  place  and  the  hour  made  some  tre- 
mendous conviction  essential. 

Whether  in  true  debate  or  expository  debate, 
in  true  argument  or  expository  argument,  it 
will  be  found  that  explanation  is  the  best 
method  of  argumentation.  Mere  assertion  is 
not  argument ;  exhortation  is  not,  in  the  strict 
sense,  argument.  You  must  show  the  reader  or 
hearer  how  your  point  of  view  is  the  best  one 
to  take,  why  he  should  take  it.  As  a  recent 
writer  very  justly  says,  "Argument  is  an  ex- 
planation in  a  case  in  which  men's  minds  are 
not  yet  unanimous  ;  exposition  is  an  explana- 
tion where  differences  of  opinion  are  merged 
in  knowledge."  ^ 

1  J.  H.  Gardiner  :  The  Forms  of  Prose  Literature^  p.  63. 


520  ABGUMENTATION 

The  following  paragraphs  are  in  form  pure 
exposition,  but  in  fact  they  are  very  strong 
arguments.  The  second  indeed  is  probably 
stronger  argument  from  being  exposition  at 
one  remove  —  exposition  not  of  the  writer's 
opinion  but  of  others'  opinions.  Dr.  Munger 
does  not  affirm  tliat  tobacco  is  harmful ;  he 
respects  his  reader  too  much  to  ask  him  to 
accept  the  opinion  of  a  clergyman  on  subjects 
requiring  expert  scientific  knowledge. 

1.  When  John  bids  father  and  mother  good-by  amongst 
the  Berkshire  hills,  and  goes  to  Boston  or  New  York  to 
make  his  way  in  the  world,  his  future  depends  with 
almost  mathematical  certainty  upon  the  character  of  his 
associates.  He  may  have  good  principles  and  high  pur- 
poses ;  tender  words  of  advice  are  in  his  ears ;  his  Bible 
lies  next  his  heart,  and  love  follows  him  with  unceasing 
prayers ;  but  John  will  do  well  or  ill  as  he  falls  among 
good  or  bad  companions.  —  T.  T.  Munger:  On  the 
Threshold. 

2.  I  do  not  propose  in  these  pages  to  enter  on  a  cru- 
sade against  tobacco,  but  I  may  remind  you  that  the  eye 
of  the  world  is  fixed  on  the  tobacco  habit  with  a  very 
close  gaze.  The  educators  in  Europe  and  America  are 
agreed  that  it  impairs  mental  energy.  Life  insurance 
companies  are  shy  of  its  peculiar  pulse.  Oculists  say 
that  it  weakens  the  eyes.  Physicians  declare  it  to  be  a 
prolific  cause  of  dyspepsia,  and  hence  of  other  ills.  The 
vital  statistician  finds  in  it  an  enemy  of  virility.  It  is  as- 
serted by  the  leading  authorities  in  each  department  that 
it  takes  the  spring  out  of  the  nerves,  the  firmness  out  of 


ARGUMENTATION  521 

the  muscles,  the  ring  out  of  the  voice ;  that  it  renders  the 
memory  less  retentive,  the  judgment  less  accurate,  the 
conscience  less  quick,  the  sensibilities  less  acute ;  that  it 
relaxes  the  will,  and  dulls  every  faculty  of  body  and 
mind  and  moral  nature,  dropping  the  entire  man  down 
in  the  scale  of  his  powers,  and  so  is  to  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  wasters  of  society.  I  do  not  undertake  to  affirm 
all  these  propositions,  but  only  to  show  how  the  social 
critics  of  the  day  are  regarding  the.  subject.  —  T.  T. 
MuNGER :   On  the   Threshold. 

We  now  come  to  the  definite  problem  of 
writing  an  argument.  The  first  thing  to  be 
determined  upon  is  the  proposition.  You  can 
expound  a  single  term,  like  ''expansion,"  but 
you  cannot  argue  it.  There  must  be  a  propo- 
sition to  defend  or  attack,  and  the  more  definite 
it  is,  the  better.  "  The  United  States  should 
adopt  a  policy  of  national  expansion  "  is  a  de- 
batable proposition,  but  not  so  debatable  as 
"  The  United  States  should  hold  sovereignty 
over  the  Philippine  Islands." 

In  framing  the  proposition,  great  care  should 
be  taken  to  choose  words  which  will  need  little 
definition.  When  however  the  proposition  is 
quite  framed,  it  will  usually  be  necessary  to 
define  certain  terms  explicitly ;  in  case  of  debate 
both  sides  must  agree  to  the  definition  before 
debate  can  begin.  Often  indeed  it  will  be 
found  that  when  both  sides  have  ao^reed  as  to 


522  ARGUMENTATION 

terms,  the  debate  is  over  and  a  better  subject 
must  be  chosen. 

The  proposition  and  the  explanation  of  its 
terms  usually  constitute  the  Introduction  to 
the  argument.  The  argument  proper  consists 
of  proofs,  which  are  facts  brought  forth  to 
support  the  proposition,  or  subordinate  propo- 
sitions (and  their  supporting  facts)  from  which 
the  main  proposition  logically  follows.  Proofs 
include  disproofs,  facts  brought  forward  to 
refute  an  opponent's  statements. 

A  master  of  argument  singles  out  in  advance 
the  "special  issue  "  which  needs  most  proof,  and 
on  which  all  the  rest  of  the  argument  depends. 
Lincoln,  defending  a  young  man  accused  of 
murder,  succeeded  in  disposing  of  all  the  ad- 
verse circumstantial  evidence,  and  in  reducing 
the  whole  case  to  one  special  issue.  Was  there 
any  eye-witness  of  the  murder?  A  man  was 
found  who  swore  to  having  seen  the  murderous 
blow,  by  the  bright  light  of  the  moon.  Lincoln 
then  produced  an  almanac  and  showed  that 
there  had  been  no  moon  visible  on  the  night  in 
question.  It  is  not  always  possible  to  reduce 
an  argument  to  one  definite  point  of  issue,  but 
it  is  always  possible  to  select  the  points  that 
demand  the  best  proof,  or  are  most  important 


ARGUMENTA  TION  523 

in  the  discussion.  It  is  a  common  mistake 
of  young  debaters  to  depend  rather  upon  the 
number  of  "points"  they  present  than  upon 
the  weight  and  power  of  one  really  strong  argu- 
ment. A  keen  opposition  sees  the  weakness 
of  relying  on  quantity  rather  than  on  quality, 
and  it  speedily  produces  great  effect  by 
knocking  down  the  many  weak  contentions, 
though  all  the  time  it  may  be  dodging  the 
strong  one. 

A  thorough  discussion  of  the  nature  of 
proofs  involves  a  treatment  of  practical  logic, 
the  science  of  correct  thinking,  and  particu- 
larly of  those  parts  which  consider  inference 
and  evidence.  The  most  elementary  principles 
of  inference  and  evidence  ^  can  easily  be  under- 
stood even  by  boys  of  fourteen ;  but  the  prin- 
ciples of  inference  and  evidence  which  are 
unconsciously  applied  by  somewhat  older  stu- 
dents are  by  no  means  elementary.  It  seems 
best  to  attempt  here  no  statement  of  the  tech- 
nical laws  of  inference  and  evidence,  which 
are   really    collegiate    subjects    of    study,    but 

1  For  example,  that  "  as  many  observations  as  possible 
should  be  made  before  drawing  a  conclusion,"  and  that 
"  what  merely  happens  to  follow  should  hot  be  mistaken  for 
what  results."  See  A  First  Manual  of  Composition^  Chap- 
ter V. 


524  ABGUMENTATION 

merely  to  point  out  a  method  of  so  arrang- 
ing proofs  that  their  adequacy  may  be  tested. ^ 

This  method  of  arrangement  is-  called  the 
Brief  method.  A  Brief  is  an  outline  of  an 
argument,  containing  a  statement  of  the  main 
proposition  and  every  subordinate  proposition 
leading  to  it,  together  with  memoranda  of  all 
facts  offered  in  support  of  any  proposition. 
Briefs  show  at  a  glance  where  the  evidence 
offered  is  abundant,  where  scanty ;  and  they 
permit  the  course  of  the  argument  to  be  scanned 
severely  as  a  whole  and  in  its  parts. 

If  we  place  a  typical  brief  before  us,  we  shall 
see  what  the  debater's  probleip  is. 

'^'"Vquestiox  2 

Resolved,  That  the  foot-ball  games  between  secondary 
schools  promote  the  best  interests  of  the  schools. 

Brief  for  the  Affirmative  \  : 

I.   Introduction.^     j&rietics-vin  secondary  gchools-ar'e 
essential^  for 
(o)  Youth  is  the  time  for  physical  development. 

1  Parts  of  Dr.  Alden's  The  Art  of  Debate  (Holt)  and  of 
Dr.  Buck's  Argumentative  Writi^ig  (Holt)  will  be  helpful 
to  any  advanced  secondary  stulient  who  finds  the  present 
treatment  too  brief. 

2  Adapted  from  a  brief  on  intercollegiate  foot-ball,  in 
Brookings  and  Ringwalt:  Brief s  for  Debate  (Longmans). 

s  There  seems  to  be  no  necessity  for  defining  terms  ;  so 
the  Introduction  is  devoted  to  the  general  topic  of  which 
foot-bail  is  a  part. 


ARGUMENTATION  525 

i.    - ' 
(h)  Without  atkletics  students  do  not  get  suffi- 
cient exercise,  for 

(1)  Therp  is  no  necessity  for  physical  exertion. 

(2)  We  have  no  niilitary  training. 

n.   Foot-ball  is  a  beneficial  form  of  athletics,  for 

(a)  It  is  acceptable  to  the  students,  for 

(1)  It  is  played  by  a  large  number,  and 

(2)  Students  say  it  would  be  played  by  still 

larger  numbers  if  coaching  were  pro- 
vided for  all. 

(b)  It  promotes  bodily  health,  for 

(1)  Training  teaches  the  importance  of  proper 

ventilation  and  wholesome  food. 

(2)  The  actual  exercise  brings  into  play  all 

the  muscles. 

(c)  It  promotes  moral  qualities : 

self-control 
temperance 
courage 
III.   Contests  between  schools  are  advantageous,  for 

(a)  They  are  a  stimulus  to  general  participation, 

for 
(1)  If  there  were  no  contests  between  schools 
there  would  be  less  interest  in  the  sport, 
and  fewer  men  would  try  for  the  teams. 

(b)  They  develop  school  spirit. 

(c)  They  bring  the  different  schools  into  closer 

relation. 
IV.^   The  evils  of  foot-ball  are  not  ineradicable,  for 
(a)  The  number  of  injuries  is  greatly  exaggerated 

and 
(6)  can  be  decreased  by  new  rules. 
(c)  The  time  given  to  training  is  not  excessive,  for 

1  This  important  division  is  devoted  to  refutation ;   the 
argument  anticipates  objections. 


626  A  BGUMENTA  TION 

(1)  The  foot-ball  season  lasts  only  ten  weeks. 

(2)  It  does  not  interfere  seriously  with  studies. 
(c?)  The  lowering  of  students'  ideals,  if  a  danger, 

can  be  prevented, 
(1)  By  requiring  a  higher  standard  of  scholar- 
ship. 
(e)  The  crowds  of  outsiders  and  the  expenditure 
of  large  sums  can  be  avoided. 
(1)  By  limiting  games  to  school  grounds  and 
reducing  the  price  of  admission. 

Placed  in  this  systematic  form,  the  argument 
for  the  affirmative  can  be  closely  scanned  —  for 
places  where  the  facts  brought  forward  seem 
inadequate  to  support  the  statements  just  above 
them.  As  briefs  go,  this  one  is  fairly  full,  but 
it  is  not  full  enough.  The  refutation,  section 
IV.,  is  the  weakest  part.  IV.  Qc)  2,  the  state- 
ment that  the  foot-ball  season  does  not  seriously 
interfere  with  studies,  is  pure  assertion  ;  it  may 
be  true,  but  memoranda  of  facts  are  not  present 
to  prove  it.  IV.  (a)  and  (5)  are  also  weak 
statements  because  indefinite  and  unsupported. 
Statistics,  it  is  said,  will  prove  anything ;  very 
likely,  but  at  all  events  assertions  prove  noth- 
ing unless  they  are  the  assertions  of  high 
authority. 

Our  rule  must  therefore  be.  Over  prove  rather 
than  underprove  in  the  brief.  It  is  a  hard  rule, 
but  the  only  safe  one. 


ABGUMENTATION  527 

A  word  now  concerning  persuasion.  If  you 
are  arguing  from  conviction,  you  will  probably 
wish  not  merely  to  convince  your  reader,  but 
to  influence  his  will.  Whole  libraries  have 
been  written  upon  the  art  of  doing  this  ;  even 
so  great  a  man  as  Aristotle  descended  to  explain 
deliberate  trickery  of  persuasion.  The  early 
Romans  were  sound  in  their  view  of  the  matter. 
A  man  cannot  be  a  great  orator,  said  Cato,  un- 
less he  is  a  good  man.  Aristotle  said  that  a 
man  must  impress  his  audience  as  being  honest 
in  purpose  ;  Cato  would  insist  that  he  must 
actually  be  honest  in  purpose.  The  first  con- 
dition of  being  persuasive  is  being  in  earnest. 
In  school  debates  you  have  often  seen  the  vic- 
tory won  by  some  solid  fellow  who  was  believed 
to  mean  what  he  said,  although  his  opponent 
may  have  presented  much  the  cleverer  argument. 
To  be  persuasive,  then,  write  what  you  really 
believe,  and  nothing  else. 

Also,  write  down  jouy  feelings  as  well  as 
your  intellectual  convictions.  If  you  were 
moved  to  indignation,  or  pity,  or  wholesome 
fear  by  your  observations  or  your  conclusion, 
see  to  it  that  your  reader  is  made  to  live  over 
these  emotions  with  you.  It  will  rarely  be 
necessary  to  exhort  directly.     You  can  narrate 


528  ARGUMENTATION 

« 

and  describe  and  explain  in  such  ways  as  to 
move  the  reader  to  feel  the  situation  as  you 
feel  it. 

Nowhere  in  your  writing  will  you  find  it  so 
necessary  to  be  careful  about  choice  of  words 
as  in  argument,  for  here  lack  of  precision  or 
lack  of  good  taste  is  punished  by  your  losing 
the  case.  In  the  definition  of  terms,  in  the 
statement  of  proofs,  words  must  be  chosen  so 
carefully  that  your  opponent  shall  have  no 
chance  to  divert  attention  from  your  strong 
arguments  to  your  minor  inaccuracies.  And 
always  your  diction  should  be  simple,  and 
your  own.  Young  orators  sometimes  attempt 
to  soar  on  stray  quills  fallen  from  the  eagles 
of  eloquence  —  I  am  not  sure  but  that  the 
figure  is  bad  enough  to  illustrate  the  fault. 
They  are  even  content  with  feathers  that  fell 
from  buzzards  rather  than  from  eagles.  The 
young  orator  must  not  talk  of  "bloodless  bat- 
tles of  ballots,"  or  ''patriotic  pledges  to  the 
plain  people,"  or  the  ''sarcophagi  which  con- 
tain the  sacred  ashes  of  our  fathers."  This 
sort  of  thing  has  its  associations  with  peanuts 
and  weak  lemonade,  and  will  merely  disgust 
those  hearers  whose  approval  the  speaker  most 
desires. 


ARGUMENTATION  529 

Exercise  143.  {Brief.)  Write  the  brief 
of  an  argument,  not  intended  for  delivery,  on 
a  subject  concerning  which  you  have  convic- 
tions. 

Exercise  144.  (Theme.)  Expand  the 
brief  of  144  into  a  complete  theme. 

Exercise  145.  {Brief.}  Write  the  brief 
of  an  argument  which  may  be  delivered,  on 
a  subject  concerning  which  you  have  convic- 
tions. 

Exercise  146.  {Theme.)  Expand  the  brief 
of  145  into  an  argument,  letting  the  style  be 
adapted  for  oral  delivery  to  a  particular  audi- 
ence. 

Suggested  subjects  for  exercises  143-146 1^ 

1.  Examinations  in  the  high  school  should  be  abol- 
ished. 2.  High  school  students  should  read  the  news- 
papers thoroughly.  3.  A  parent  should  forbid  his  son  to 
play  foot-ball.  4.  Coaching  for  all  students  who  wish  to 
play  foot-ball  should  be  provided  by  the  school.  5.  Pay- 
ing a  fare  entitles  the  payer  to  a  seat.  6.  There  are  no 
customary  lies  which  are  right.  7.  Students  should  not 
study  together.  8.  Students  should  be  allowed  to  govern 
themselves.     9.  Women  should  not  wear  birds  on  their 

1  Local  conditions  will  suggest  the  best  topics  for  argu- 
ments in  which  the  student  is  expected  to  write  from  con- 
viction. 

2m 


530  ARGUMENTATION 

hats.     10.   Tardiness  should   be   punished  with  greater 
severity  than  it  is  punished  at  present  in  this  school. 

Exercise  147.  (Brief,}  Write  the  brief 
of  an  argument,  not  intended  for  delivery,  on 
a  subject  in  which  you  are  interested  but  which 
you  cannot  expect  to  master  thoroughly. 

Exercise  148.  (Theme.}  Expand  the  brief 
of  147  into  an  argument,  showing  that  you 
are  expounding  the  affirmative  or  the  negative 
without  advancing  a  personal  opinion. 

Exercise  149.  (Brief.}  Choose  a  subject 
similar  to  that  of  147,  but  one  adapted  par- 
ticularly to  debate,  and  write  a  brief. 

Exercise  150.  (Theme.}  Expand  the  brief 
of  149  into  an  argument,  adapted  for  oral 
delivery. 

Suggested  subjects  for  exercises  147-150  :  ^ 

1.  Labor-saving  machinery  is  a  permanent  advantage 
to  mankind.  2.  The  Gulf  of  Mexico  will  one  day  have  a 
greater  port  than  New  York  now  is.  3.  Observation 
helps  us  more  than  reading.  4.  Persons  possessing  no 
property  should  not  be  allowed  to  vote.  5.  Persons  not 
possessing  a  grammar  school  education  should  not  be 
allowed  to  vote.  6.  A  man  should  never  shoot  a  burg- 
lar.    7.  Capital  punishment  is  defensible  as  punishment. 

^  The  student's  work  in  economics,  history,  and  literature 
will  suggest  to  instructors  many  other  subjects. 


ARGUMENTATION^  531 

8.  Capital  punishment  is  defensible  as  a  protection  to 
society.  9.  Latin  should  be  a  compulsory  study  for  one 
year  in  the  high  school.  10.  Cities  should  own  and  oper- 
ate street  railways.  11.  Cities  should  own  and  operate 
a  system  of  lighting.  12.  The  United  States  should  re- 
tain the  Philippine  Islands.  13.  Criminals  should  be  dis- 
franchised. 14.  Judges  should  not  be  elected  by  popular 
vote.  15.  Trusts  should  be  regulated  by  the  Federal 
Government.  16.  Certain  trusts  should  be  "bought 
out "  by  the  Federal  Government  and  their  business  ad- 
ministered for  the  benefit  of  all  the  people.  17.  Immi- 
grants should  be  compelled  to  read  and  w^rite.  18.  The 
reading  of  fiction  is  of  more  harm  than  good.  19.  Every 
person  has  the  right  of  employment.  20.  Profit-sharing 
is  practicable  and  just. 


APPENDIX   A:    GRAMMAR 


In  this  place  are  reviewed  those  commoner  matters  of  inflec- 
tion and  syntax  which  the  student  is  supposed  to  understand 
before  he  reaches  the  second  year  of  the  secondary  school,  but 
which  are  not  easy  to  remember. 

Distinctions  in  Case.  —  1.  In  using  two  pronouns  as  objects 
of  one  verb,  be  careful  to  keep  both  in  the  objective  or  accusa- 
tive case. 

They  invited  him  and  me  [not  J.] 

Between  you  and  me  [not  /]  it  was  a  disgraceful  scene. 

2.  After  the  expression  "  It  is  "  the  nominative  case  is  used, 
even  though  the  objective  is  easier  to  pronounce.  Students 
familiar  with  the  biblical  sentence,  **It  is  I,  be  not  afraid," 
should  need  no  mentor  in  this  matter. 

"  Who  is  there?"  —  ''It's  only  I  [not  me.]  " 
If  I  were  he  [not  him]  I  would  go. 

3.  The  participle  in  ing  should  not  be  confused  with  the 
verbal  in  ing.  Select  from  the  following  sentences  the  verbals, 
or  names  of  actions. 

Not  the  ship's  being  in  the  water,  but  the  water's  being  in  the 
ship  makes  the  trouble. 

Think  of  Michel  Angelo,  working  for  a  week  without  taking 
off  his  clothes  ;  and  then  think  of  his  accomplishing  more  than 
any  painter  of  his  time. 

Read  aloud  the  following  sentences  and  say  which  of  the 
bracketed  words  is  preferable  in  the  given  place : 

1.  Think  of  [me,  my]  doing  any  such  thing  ! 

2.  Picture  [me,  my]  doing  any  such  thing  ! 

3.  He  objects  to  [us,  our]  going. 

4.  He  saw  [us,  our]  going  down  the  street. 

5.  He  observed  [us,  our]  coming  back. 

6.  The  fact  of  [Poe,  Poe's]  being  a  genius  should  not  blind  us 
to  his  moral  weakness. 

533 


534  APPENDIX  A  :    GBAMMAR 

4.  Good  usage  recommends  that  we  say  "  the  schools  of  Chi- 
cago "  rather  than  "Chicago's  schools"  ;  ''the  cause  of  the 
accident "  rather  than  "  the  accident's  cause."  In  other  words, 
it  recommends  that  we  save  the  possessive  in  '5  (or  Saxon  geni- 
tive) for  living  beings.  For  things,  for  abstract  ideas,  for 
cities  —  everything  except  beings  —  the  possessive  in  of  (or 
Norman  genitive)  is  preferred.  Thus  we  say,  "Napoleon's 
hat,"  and  *'  the  rim  of  Napoleon's  hat,"  instead  of  "  Napoleon's 
hat's  rim."  The  newspapers,  perhaps  to  save  space,  have  fallen 
into  the  habit  of  talking  about  "  Chicago's  interests,"  "  Evans- 
ton's  power-house,"  "America's  navy,"  etc.;  but  it  is  better 
not  to  imitate  these  expressions.  There  are  few  exceptions: 
day's  work,  week's  pay,  etc. 

Distinctions  between  Adjectives  and  Adverbs.  —  There 
is  a  group  of  words  —  verbs  of  sensation  and  the  like,  look, 
sound,  feel,  smell,  taste,  appear,  seem  — which  take  an  adjective 
to  complete  their  meaning.  "She  looks  sweet,"  "It  tastes 
siveet,"  '^  She  seems  happy,"  are  common  and  correct  ways  of 
speaking.  Notice  that  here  something  of  the  same  idea  can  be 
given  by  saying,  "She  is  sweet,"  "It  is  sweet,"  "She  is 
happy."  The  sweet  idea  or  the  happy  idea  describes  the  subject, 
the  person,  not  the  verb.  Of  course,  one  might  write  a  sentence 
in  which  the  sweet  idea  would  tell  the  way  a  given  act  was  done. 
"'  She  looked  sweetly  "  would  imply  that  she  was  gazing  sweetly 
at  something  or  somebody. 

But  here  must  be  noted  an  exception  or  two.  (a)  The  word 
bad  has  two  senses:  moral  badness,  and  badness  that  is  not 
moral  — badness  of  health,  for  instance.  If  I  say  "  I  feel  bad," 
the  bad  seems  to  mean  moral  badness  ;  i.e.  "  I  am  bad."  It  is 
therefore  permissible  to  break  the  rule  and  apply  badly  to  physi- 
cal feeling.  "  I  feel  badly  "  is  a  common  expression  for  "  I  feel 
sick"  ;  and  by  the  exception  to  the  rule  is  correct.  Which  is 
better  in  the  following  sentence  —  bad  or  badly?    "It  sounds 

to  hear  a  young  man  swear."     (6)   There  are  a  few  cases 

where  the  adverb  is  retained  when  the  verb  is  not  felt  as  acting. 
"The  report  sounds  well,"  certainly  does  not  mean  that  the 
report  is  in  good  health ;  but  it  is  certainly  good  English.  Simi- 
larly we  have,  "  She  appears  well  in  company." 

Concord  between  Subject  and  Predicate.  —  1.  A  col- 
lective noun  takes  a  singular  verb  if  the  group  of  objects  is 
properly  thought  of  as  a  whole : 


APPENDIX  A  :    GRAMMAR  535 

The  United  States  is  coining  gold  and  silver. 
Ten  dollars  is  enough. 

His  courage  and  bravery  makes  him  successful. 
The  collective  noun  takes  a  plural  verb  if  each  separate  mem- 
ber of  the  group  is  thought  of : 
The  United  States  are  firmly  bound  together  in  one  union. 
Ten  dollars  were  scattered  on  the  table. 
His  courage  and  skill  make  him  successful. 

2.  Before  writing  the  verb  of  a  relative  clause,  think  whether 
the  antecedent  is  singular  or  plural. 

Her  voice  is  one  of  the  sweetest  that  have  [not  has]  been  heard 
in  this  town. 

That  dog  is  one  of  the  biggest  that  have  [not  has]  been  seen 
here. 

3.  In  beginning  a  sentence  with  the  verb,  think  ahead  to  be 
sure  of  the  number  of  the  subject.  There  is  great  danger  of  a 
slip  when  one  begins  with  "  there  is  "  or  "  there  are,"  because 
"  there  are  "  is  so  hard  to  pronounce  that  we  naturally  shun  it. 

There  are  [not  there^s]  all  the  boys. 

There  are  [not  there's]  lots  of  clover  over  there. 

There  are  [not  there's]  more  than  one  rascal  alive. 

There  is  a  lot  of  clover  over  there. 

There  were  [not  there  was]  once  upon  a  time  two  giants. 

Were  you  [not  was  you]  out  yesterday? 

4.  In  writing  a  long  sentence,  glance  back  at  the  number  of 
the  subject  before  you  write  the  verb.  A  plural  near  the  verb 
often  leads  one  to  forget  that  the  subject  is  singular. 

The  great  number  of  the  crows  that  settle  nightly  in  the  grove 
and  fill  the  air  with  their  cries  makes  [not  make]  the  place  a 
bedlam.     [But,  ''  A  number  of  crows  were  there."] 

5.  When  a  singular  subject  precedes  a  parenthetical  phrase, 
the  former  reaches  over  the  head  of  the  latter,  and  makes  the 
verb  singular.  This  rule  holds  even  when  the  parenthesis  is 
introduced  by  with. 

Napoleon,  with  all  his  army,  was  on  the  march. 

6.  Either,  iieither,  when  used  as  distributives,  take  a  singular 
verb. 

Neither  one  of  us  was  present. 

7.  None,  originally  no  one,  is  either  singular  or  plural,  pref- 
erably singular. 

Concord  of  Pronoun  and  Antecedent.  —  1.   It  should  be 


536  APPENDIX  A  :    GRAMMAR 

remembered  that  every  singular  antecedent  takes  a  singular 
pronoun.  '*  Everybody  came  forward  and  laid  his  contribution 
on  the  table  "  —  not  *'  their  contribution."  Of  course  it  may  be 
argued  that  "everybody"  means  the  same  as  '*  all "  and  is 
therefore  a  plural.  But  "  everybody  "  is  not  thought  of  as  "  all  '* 
when  such  an  act  as  laying  a  contribution  on  a  table  is  concerned. 
People  instinctively  use  "  everybody"  even  when  they  think  of 
a  succession  of  individual  actors. 

2.  When  a  number  of  persons,  men  and  women,  are  spoken  of 
distributively,  the  pronouns  he  and  his  are  proper  forms  of 
reference  —  not  thei7\  not  his  or  her.  "  The  audience  rose,  and 
each  person  waved  his  applause  "  would  be  correct,  even  if  there 
were  ten  ladies  to  each  man.  The  he  or  his  may  here  be  called 
the  neutral  pronoun.  What  pronouns  should  till  the  blanks  in 
the  following  sentence  ?    Let  every  man  and  woman  who  would 

like  to  join  our  picnic  betake to  the  pier  at  three  o'clock, 

and  give no  anxiety  about lunch; will  find  plenty 

of  sandwiches  and  cake  and  coffee  on  the  picnic-boat. 

Such  expressions  as  *'  every  man  and  woman  "  are,  however, 
undesirable  whenever  the  neutral  pronoun  is  to  be  used.  A 
neutral  antecedent,  like  every  person,  everybody ,  every  one,  is 
preferable. 

Be  careful  not  to  say  ''  they  "  in  referring  to  a  species. 

Wrong :  The  turtle  is  not  one  of  the  animals  permitted  in  these 
cars  ;  they  must  travel  in  the  baggage  car. 

Right:  Turtles  are  not  permitted  in  these  cars;  they  must 
travel  in  the  baggage  car. 

Government.  —  1.  ''He  invited  him  and  J,"  is  not  an 
unheard-of  blunder.  People  often  needlessly  shrink  from  say- 
ing a  correct  sentence  like  this  — ''  He  invited  him  and  me"  — 
and  will  even  insert  the  full  names  of  him  and  me  rather  than 
out  with  the  right  case  of  the  pronoun. 

2.  In  asking  a  question,  think  whether  who  or  whom  is 
required.  '*  Whom  did  you  see  ?"  but,  "  Who  was  it  that  you 
saw  ?  " 

3.  Let  governs  the  objective  case,  quite  as  any  other  active 
verb.    **  Let  John  and  me  go." 

4.  An  error  often  occurs  in  the  case  of  the  relative  after  a 
verb  of  saying,  thinking,  telling,  and  the  like.  "  Franklin's 
Autobiography  is  the  work  of  a  man  tvhom  I  should  think 
would  be  known  to  every  American."    The  whom  is  wrong  for 


APPENDIX  A  :    GRAMMAR  537 

who.  Had  the  writer  set  off  *'  I  should  think  "  by  commas,  he 
would  have  seen  the  mistake. 

5.  A  good  deal  of  objection  has  been  raised  to  the  construc- 
tion called  *' the  retained  object"  —  *'the  use  of  the  indirect 
object  of  a  verb  as  the  subject  of  that  verb  in  the  passive 
voice  "  :  "He  was  given  a  book,"  for  "  A  book  was  given  him." 
Of  two  recent  writers  one  severely  criticizes  the  construction, 
calling  it  a  "preposterous  locution."  i  The  other  says,  **  The 
mind  accepts  the  construction  easily  and  the  objection  seems 
finical."  2 

The  idiom  seems  fairly  established  in  literary  usage,^  and 
that  ought  to  settle  the  matter.  Such  an  idiom  does  not  really 
violate  the  rules  of  grammar,  for  we  must  recognize  that  idiom 
may  change  the  meaning  of  a  word.  "Given"  in  "He  was 
given  a  book  "  plainly  has  a  different  sense  from  "given  "  in 
"  A  book  was  given  him."  The  case  of  such  a  word  as  "  offered  " 
is  still  clearer.  "We  were  offered  a  chance"  seems  quite  as 
idiomatic  as  "  A  chance  was  offered  us." 

Tense  Relations.  —  1.  Care  must  be  taken  to  use  the  correct 
tenses  of  auxiliary  verbs  and  infinitives. 

We  wanted  to  go  [not  to  have  gone]. 

We  were  glad  not  to  have  gone. 

We  shall  be  glad  to  go. 

We  shall  sometime  be  glad  to  have  gone. 

We  should  have  been  glad  to  go  [not  to  have  gone],  if  the 
chance  had  been  presented. 

He  wanted  to  know  if  there  was  malaria  in  the  place. 

He  wanted  to  know  if  there  had  been  malaria  in  the  place. 

He  wanted  to  know  if  malaria  is  contagious. 

2.  From  the  way  in  which  we  Americans  disregard  the  dis- 
tinction between  shall  and  will,  one  might  fancy  that  we  have 
no  personal  interest  in  it,  or,  to  be  exacter,  that  we  were  deter- 
mined to  be  personally  responsible  for  everything  in  future 
time,  since  we  use  will  in  the  first  person  almost  to  the  exclusion 
of  shall. 

Nearly  always  "I  shall,"  "we  shall,"  simply  foretell  the 
future  act.    "I  shall  be  there"  incidentally  announces  the 

1  Professor  Harry  Thurston  Peck,  What  is  Good  English  ?  and  other  . 
Essays,  p.  24. 

2  Professor  Alphonso  G.  Newcomer,  Elements  of  Rhetoric,  p.  128. 

3  Professor  Peck  and  others  are  inclined  to  doubt  this,  however. 


538  APPENDIX  A  :    GBAMMAB 

speaker's  intention,  but  the  chief  thing  it  announces  is  that 
the  speaker  will  be  there.  But  if  we  wish  to  loretell  a  future 
act  not  our  own,  we  say  *'  you  will,"  or  *'he  will,"  or  "  they 
will."  This  rule  holds  in  conditional  sentences,  uhus :  *' If  we 
should  stay,  we  should  be  glad  to  see  you." 

"  I  will,"  ''  we  will,"  implies  either  deliberate  intentioii  or 
distinct  willing7iess.  "I  will  go"  means  either  "I  am  deter- 
mined to  go,"  or,  "  I  am  willing  to  go." 

Our  first  rule  is  accordingly  as  follows:  To  indicate  mere 
futurity^  use  shall  in  the  first  person,  will  in  the  second  and 
third.  Examples ;  "  I  shall  be  glad  to  come.  You  will  find  me 
on  hand  at  the  pier."  So  far,  so  good.  But  note  that  this  rule 
applies  also  when  the  speaker  is  made  to  report  his  own  words. 
**  Abner  says  that  he  shall  be  glad  to  come,  and  that  you  will 
find  him  on  hand  at  the  pier."  Just  so  if  the  discourse  is  in  the 
past,  and  it  is  the  speaker  who  reported  that  he  should  be  glad 
to  come,  and  that  you  would  find  him  at  the  pier.  All  this  seems 
sensible  enough,  for  the  speaker  is  merely  made  to  foretell  his 
own  future  act.  The  rule  is  too  often  broken.  "  Abner  says  he 
was  afraid  he'd  miss  the  boat."  Here  the  contraction  he'd 
stands  (as  always)  for  he  ivould,  whereas  the  strictly  correct 
form  is  he  should.  The  same  rule  applies  when  instead  of  such 
a  word  as  say  we  have  think,  or  fear,  or  believe.  *'  Luke  thinks 
he  shall  miss  his  boat,"  is  correct;  so  is,  *' Luke  feared  he 
should  miss  the  boat.  Rule :  After  vei^bs  of  saying,  thinking, 
telling,  and  the  like,  shall  {or  should)  is  the  preferable  auxiliary 
if  the  future  act  is  foretold  by  the  actor. 

Now  we  are  ready  to  ask  how  these  words  should  be  used  in 
questions.  A  very  simple  rule  is  enough  for  most  purposes: 
In  the  second  and  third  persons,  use  in  the  question  the  form 
you  expect  in  the  ansiver. 

"Shall  youi  go  by  way  of  our  house,  Abner?"  Abner 
replies,  "  I  certainly  shall."  "  Will  you  kindly  bring  my  lunch 
with  you  ?  the  cook  has  it  ready."    *'  I  will,  with  great  pleasure." 

The  rule  holds  after  verbs  of  saying,  etc.  Thus:  "  Abner 's 
aunt  asked  him  whether  he  should  be  at  the  pier  by  three. 
Abner  replied  that  he  should.    Then  she  wanted  to  know  if  he 

1  The  student  should  note  that  "  Shall  you  g'o  ?  "  is  a  pleasant  chang-e 
from  "Are  you  going  to  go  ?  "  The  American  boy  overworks  the  expres- 
sions "  Are  you  going  to  ?  "  "I  am  going  to,"  etc. 


APPENDIX  A  :    GRAMMAR  539 

loould  kindly  bring  her  lunch  along ;  Abner  promised  that  he 
would.^^ 

If  a  question  ic  put  in  the  firct  persoHj  shall  often  asks  for 
instructions :  "  Shall  I  go  ?  "  But  if  mere  Iniormr.tion  iz  asked, 
shall  is  still  the  form:  '^  Shall  I  be  required  i:o  do  all  this?" 
''Yes,  I  fear  you  will."  Briefly,  then, /or  a  question  in  the 
first  person  aw  ays  use  shall. 

Where  blanks  appear  in  the  following  sentences  insert  the 
right  auxiliary.    Correct  any  misuse  of  auxiliaries. 

1.  Sometimes  an  Irishman ,  sometimes  a  Frenchman ,  is  credited 
with  this  remark,   "  I  will  be  drowned  ;  nobody  shall  help  me." 

2.  I be  delighted  to  see  you  with  us. 

3.  I be  obliged  if  you lend  me  your  pencil. 

4.  The  director  thinks  he be  able  to  speak  well  of  that 

student,  if  the  boy need  a  good  word. 

5.  you  be  content  if  you  get  to  college  ? 

6  — —  I  be  permitted  to  say  that  you see  him  before  any- 
thing is  done  ? 

7.  Jim  Hawkins  was  mortally  afraid  that  he be  killed  by 

Long  John  Silver;  and  in  turn  Long  John  began  to  fear  that 
Jim be  the  death  of  him. 

8.  you  like  some  bread  ?     [Here  should  is  the  better 

word ;  to  like  is  a  word  expressing  wish,  and  does  not  need 
the  auxiliary  loould.] 

9.  you  mind  my  asking  where  you  bought  that  jersey? 

10.  His  father  insisted  that  he stick  to  the  task ;  and  the 

son  afterwards  seemed  glad  of  the  fact,  and  asked  whether  he 
do  some  more  work  of  the  same  sort. 

11.  If  we  were  better,  we be  happier. 

12.  In  which  sentence  can  a  contraction  of  he  would  be  used  ? 

(a)  He  said be  glad  to  accept.     (5)  Luther  declared go 

to  a  certain  city,  though  there  were  as  many  devils  there  as 
tiles  on  the  housetops. 

13.  I  be  asked  to  go  ?    Yes,  you  will. 

14.  Of  whom I  be  afraid  ? 

Mood  Relations,  —  It  is  often  said  that  the  subjunctive 
mood  is  ceasing  to  exist  in  English.  This  is  doubtless  true  in 
part,  but  the  distinction  between  indicative  and  subjunctive  is 
held  to  sharply  by  literary  usage  in  certain  cases,  particularly 
in  the  first  person  singular  of  the  verb. 

If  I  was  asleep,  I  was  not  aware  of  the  fact. 

If  I  were  asleep,  I  should  not  now  know  about  this. 


APPENDIX   B:    PUNCTUATION 

Punctuation  can  partly  be  reduced  to  definite  rules,  because 
it  is  partly  governed  by  the  laws  of  grammatical  usage ;  but  in 
part  it  can  be  reduced  only  to  very  indefinite  rules,  the  applica- 
tion of  which  will  require  artistic  sense.  In  general,  it  is  a 
device  for  showing  relations  between  thoughts,  somewhat  as 
prepositions  and  conjunctions  do ;  and  just  as  too  many  or  too 
few  words  may  be  used,  so  too  many  or  too  few  punctuation 
marks  may  be  used.  Punctuation  is  an  important  matter,  there- 
fore, and  would  not  be  relegated  to  an  appendix  in  this  book 
except  that  the  student  has  undoubtedly  received  some  definite 
instruction  in  the  subject  in  earlier  years. 

1.  The  Period  (  .).— The  period  indicates  the  close  of  a 
declaratory  sentence  having  both  subject  and  predicate  ex- 
pressed Only  in  the  rarest  cases  may  it  be  used  when  subject 
or  predicate  is  merely  understood  ;  see  pp.  193-194. 

2.  The  Semicolon  (  ; ). —  The  semicolon  is  a  kind  of  weak 
period.  It  should  rarely  be  used  except  in  a  statement  gram- 
matically independent,  where  both  subject  and  predicate  are 
expressed.  It  may  be  used,  however,  when  one  subject  or  predi- 
cate is  understood  throughout  several  independent  clauses.  Its 
chief  rhetorical  value  is  to  connect  independent  statements  that 
are  so  closely  related  in  thought,  and  so  unemphatic  in  the 
paragraph,  tliat  they  are  best  considered  as  parts  of  one  sentence 
unit.  See  pp.  189-192.  The  semicolon  should  not  ordinarily  be 
allowed  to  separate  a  mere  dependent  clause,  performing  the 
work  of  an  adjective  or  adverb,  and  beginning  with  such  a  con- 
nective as  who,  which,  whose,  that,  when,  while,  where,  although, 
in  order  that,  — from  the  main  statement  on  which  it  depends 
and  which  it  modifies.  When,  however,  the  sentence  is  long, 
and  composed  of  such  clauses  that  the  comma  could  not  be  the 
only  interior  punctuation  without  danger  of  misunderstanding, 
the  semicolon  may,  by  exception,  take  the  place  of  the  comma 

540 


APPENDIX  B:    PUNCTUATION  541 

before  a  dependent  clause,  or  even  before  a  phrase.    All  these 
uses  of  the  semicolon  may  be  illustrated  thus  : 

1.  Only  in  the  wild  northern  country  does  man  appreciate  a 
house.  It  shelters  him  from  real  dangers ;  it  protects  him  from 
immediate  death. 

2.  Histories  make  men  wise;  poets,  witty;  the  mathematics, 
subtile ;  natural  philosophy,  deep ;  morals,  grave ;  logic  and 
rhetoric,  able  to  contend. 

3.  Whether  you  work  day  by  day,  month  in  and  out,  in  a 
city ;  or  whether  you  are  busied  with  that  harder  kind  of  work 
which  goes  by  the  name  of  being  rich ;  or  whether  you  travel 
the  world  over  in  search  of  recreation  —  you  find  the  real  secret 
of  happiness  to  lie  in  your  own  attitude  toward  life. 

4.  The  view  is  blocked  by  an  enormous  smoke-stack;  built 
of  brick,  and  massive;  blue  in  the  cold  winter  mist;  glowing 
like  a  pillar  of  fire  as  soon  as  the  sunlight  reaches  it ;  the  most 
changing,  the  most  stable  thing  in  this  landscape. 

The  semicolon  cannot  be  used  directly  before  an  enumera- 
tion of  particulars  not  constituting  an  independent  clause,  but 
it  may  be  used  before  the  abbreviation  e.g.  {exempli  gratia^ 
**for  example.")*  It  is  also  used  before  the  abbreviation,  viz. 
{videlicet,'^ ''  to  wit ") ;  but  the  viz.  is  a  legal  term,  and  should 
not  appear  in  themes.  The  actual  English  translation,  "  to 
wit,"  is  appropriate  enough,  written  out,  but  is  not  often  to  be 
used  in  themes  except  as  a  humorous  formality. 

The  semicolon  is  much  preferable  to  the  comma  as  punc- 
tuation before  a  clause  beginning  with  the  conjunction  so.  If 
the  relation  between  such  a  clause  and  the  preceding  is  so  close 
as  to  make  the  semicolon  seem  obtrusive,  then  it  is  better  to 
drop  the  so  and  prefix  as  or  since  to  the  preceding  clause. 

1.  She  said  there  was  time  if  we  hurried ;  so  we  hurried. 

2.  As  the  roots  of  the  birch  were  in  the  way,  we  cut  them  off. 

3.  The  Comma  (,). — The  comma  is  distinctively  the  means 
of  punctuation  within  the  sentence.  Hence  the  worst  mistake 
that  can  be  made  in  using  it  is  to  confound  it  with  the  period. 
Examples  of  this  fault  are  given  on  p.  179.  A  rapid  series  of 
independent  propositions,  very  closely  related  in  sense,  may  be 
punctuated  by  commas.  Thus :  "  I  came,  I  saw,  I  conquered." 
This  is  the  only  structure  in  which  an  independent  statement, 

1  Accent  on  second  syllable  ;  English  pronunciation. 


542  APPENDIX  B:    PUNCTUATION 

not  introduced  by  a  conjunction,  is  ever  pointed  with  the  comma. 
If  there  is  any  doubt  whether  or  not  the  series  is  rapid  enough 
to  admit  commas,  semicolons  should  be  used  instead. 

The  tendency  to-day  is  to  use  fewer  commas  than  formerly. 
The  tendency  is  a  good  one,  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  the 
reader  does  not  care  to  be  interrupted  by  a  disjunctive  sign 
unless  the  omission  of  it  would  result  in  misunderstanding  or 
in  retarded  understanding.^  Perhaps  the  best  single  modern 
improvement  in  the  use  of  the  comma  is  the  omission  of  it 
before  words  of  saying,  thinking,  telling,  and  the  like,  when 
these  introduce  not  a  direct  but  an  indirect  quotation.  The 
modern  usage  may  be  illustrated  thus : 

Lord  Chatham  thought  that  the  ships  could  be  got  ready. 
Lord  Anson  said  that  they  could  not. 

A.  Coordinate  clauses,  or  compounding  sentences,  connected 
by  and,  but,  or  for,  are  usually  kept  apart  by  the  comma  before 
the  conjunction.  A  semicolon  may  stand  in  the  same  position 
if  the  two  compounding  sentences  are  felt  to  be  less  intimately 
related  than  a  comma  would  indicate ;  but  an  and  is  more  often 
dropped  after  a  semicolon. 

Examples.  —  1.  The  birch  is  called  the  weed  of  the  forest, 
but  it  is  a  beautiful  weed. 

2.  The  birch  is  called  the  weed  of  the  forest ;  but  it  is  a  beau- 
tiful* weed. 

3.  He  was  my  chum  in  college,  and  he  was  a  good  chum. 

4.  He  was  my  chum  in  college ;  and  he  was  a  good  chum. 

5.  He  was  my  chum  in  college ;  he  was  a  good  chum. 

B.  After  a  verb  or  preposition,  the  comma  is  needed  if  the 
next  noun  is  not  controlled  by  the  verb  or  preposition.  This  is 
often  the  situation  when  two  clauses  are  joined  by  and,  as,  for, 
or  because.    Punctuate  the  following : 

1.  They  caught  the  bear  and  the  cub,  after  a  long  chase, 
escaped. 

2.  I  tried  not  to  speak  of  him  as  a  friend  should  keep  still 
about  a  friend's  infirmities. 

3.  We  made  another  trial  for  luck  was  against  our  first. 

4.  We  did  not  go  to  the  cheese  factory  because  we  do  not  like 
fresh  cheese. 

1  Alford,  a  scholar  who  edited  the  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testament, 
declared  that  in  order  to  make  the  text  understood  he  had  to  destroy 
more  than  a  thousand  commas. 


APPENDIX   B:    PUNCTUATION  543 

C.  After  an  adverb  the  comma  is  sometimes  needed  to  distin- 
guish it  from  a  preposition  or  to  give  it  a  conjunctive  sense. 
Explain  the  difference  in  meaning,  as  effected  by  commas,  in 
the  following  pairs  of  sentences : 

1.  (a)  Above  the  hill  was  darkness  itself. 
(6)  Above,  the  hill  was  darkness  itself. 

2.  (a)  Again  the  British  were  foolish  enough  to  advance. 
{b)  Again,  the  British  were  foolish  enough  to  advance. 

3.  (a)  Now  the  French  seem  to  me  wonderful  stylists.^ 
(b)  Now,  the  French  seem  to  me  wonderful  stylists. 

D.  Parenthetical  elements  in  a  sentence  are  set  off  by  com- 
mas when  the  degree  of  separation  is  felt,  but  not  felt  so 
strongly  as  to  indicate  the  need  of  dashes  or  marks  of  paren- 
thesis. Adverbial  elements  are  sometimes  felt  as  parenthetical, 
sometimes  not.  The  following  sentences  are  correctly  punctu- 
ated: 

1.  Well,  now,  that  is  too  bad. 

2.  Well ,  sir,  you  are  early  up. 

3.  No,  sir,  we  cannot  agree. 

4.  There  is  however  no  cause  for  complaint. 

5.  There  is,  however,  no  cause  for  complaint. 

6.  He  read  Emerson  much ;  Carlyle,  too,  he  liked. 

7.  He  read  Emerson  much ;  Carlyle  too  he  liked. 

8.  There  was  then  no  cause  for  complaint. i 

9.  There  was,  then,  no  cause  for  complaint. 

10.   The  common  skunk,  or  polecat,  is  a  gentle  animal. 

E.  A  relative  clause  which  is  necessary  to  identify  the  ante- 
cedent is  not  to  be  separated  from  the  antecedent  by  any 
punctuation.  When,  however,  the  antecedent  can  be  identified 
without  the  relative  clause  —  when  the  reader  knows  pretty 
definitely  what  is  being  spoken  of  before  he  comes  to  the  rela- 
tive clause  —  then  a  comma  separates  clause  and  antecedent. 
In  this  case,  the  relative  clause  is  merely  additional.  Identify- 
ing relative  clauses  are  not  punctuated ;  relative  clauses  merely 
additional  are  preceded  by  the  comma. 

Examples. — 1.  There  goes  one  of  the  Presidents  who  take 
an  interest  in  all  student  affairs. 

1  The  adverb  probably  refers  to  time  here,  but  there  can  be  no  certainty- 
till  the  context  is  known.  The  words  now  and  then  are  not  always  set  off 
by  the  comma  even  when  then  means  therefore  and  now  means  let  us  now 
consider. 


544  APPENDIX  B:    PUNCTUATION 

2.  There  goes  President  Harper,  who  takes  an  interest  in  all 
student  affairs. 

F.  In  a  series  of  words  or  phrases  the  last  two  of  which  are 
connected  by  and  or  or,  the  rest  unconnected,  the  comma  sepa- 
rates each  member  of  the  series  from  the  preceding.  Note  that 
the  comma  is  placed  before  the  last  of  the  series,  even  though  a 
conjunction  is  present ;  otherwise  it  may  seem  that  the  last  two 
members  count  as  but  one  in  the  series.  When  especial  empha- 
sis is  desired,  both  comma  and  conjunction  may  be  used  through- 
out the  series. 

Examples.  — 1.  Sheridan,  Sherman,  and  Grant  were  Federal 
generals. 

2.  The  Confederate  forces  numbered  many  able  and  gallant 
officers,  like  Jackson,  and  Beauregard.  Some  were  veritable 
knights,  like  Lee,  or  Albert  Sidney  Johnston. 

In  the  case  of  adjectives,  a  distinction  must  be  made  between 
those  which  constitute  a  true  series,  and  those  which  are  so 
closely  related  to  the  noun  that  they  seem  to  be  modified  along 
with  it  by  the  preceding  adjectives.  In  the  phrase  "little, 
old  man,"  the  modifiers  are  in  a  true  series,  equal  and  dis- 
tinct emphasis  being  laid  on  each.  But  in  the  phrase  "little 
old  man  "  both  adjectives  are  pronounced  quickly,  without  par- 
ticular emphasis  on  either,  and  the  expression  is  equivalent  to 
one  adjective  with  a  noun,  much  as  if  we  had  said,  "little 
octogenarian." 

G.  The  general  rule  that  a  comma  may  be  used  to  denote 
ellipsis  must  be  applied  with  caution.  The  ellipses  so  denoted 
are  usually  brief,  and  often  such  as  are  made  merely  to  avoid 
the  repetition  of  the  verb.  Scrupulous  care  should  be  taken  to 
use  a  comma  between  the  name  of  a  town  and  its  state,  or  that 
of  a  month  and  its  year ;  but  none  need  be  placed  between  a  day 
and  its  month,  and  often  none  is  needed  to  show  the  ellipsis  of  a 
repeated  verb. 

Examples.  —  1.  Thornton  bagged  seven  birds ;  James,  seven  ; 
I,  only  two ;  but  we  felt  ashamed  to  have  in  our  possession  twice 
as  many  birds  as  the  entire  camp  could  comfortably  eat. 

2.  Thornton  bagged  seven  birds,  James  seven,  I  only  two; 
but,  etc. 

3.  Boston,  Massachusetts,  October  7,  1909. 

4.  The  Colon  (: ).  —  1.  The  colon  is  usually  a  mark  of  specifi- 
cation. "The  old  idea  of  education  was  simple :  reading,  writing. 


APPENDIX  B  :    PUNCTUATION  545 

arithmetic."  A  fine  distinction  of  logic  can  be  shown  by  using 
it ;  a  general  statement  may  be  followed  by  a  colon,  after  which 
the  details  that  explain  the  statement  may  be  given ;  cf.  p.  174. 
In  the  following  sentence  the  colon  specifies  what  is  meant  by  fine 
character.  ''He  was  a  fellow  of  fine  character:  brave,  honor- 
able, free  from  false  pretence."  Usually  the  colon  separates 
clauses  that  are  logically,  if  not  grammatically,  in  apposition 
with  each  other. 

2.  The  colon  introduces  a  formal  or  long,  the  comma  an  in- 
formal or  short,  quotation.  *'  He  answered,  '  I  will  work  while 
the  day  lasts.'  "  "  The  Declaration  of  Independence  begins  as 
follows :  '  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events.'  " 

5 .  The  Dash  (— ) .  —  1.  The  dash  shows  a  sudden  break  in  the 
thought.  "We  were  hurrying  onward  —  but  first  let  me  tell 
what  happened  before  that." 

2.  The  dash  sometimes  precedes  a  summing  up.  Here  it 
usually  follows  a  comma,  since  the  members  of  the  series  are  set 
off  by  commas:  "This  foreigner  read  Chaucer,  Shakspere, 
Wordsworth,  —  very  many  of  our  great  poets  indeed." 

3.  Sometimes  the  dash  is  used  when  there  is  no  real  summing 
up,  but  a  phrase  or  clause  is  added,  as  a  further  explanation. 
For  examples,  see  pp.  452,  453,  487,  505,  509. 

4.  The  dash  is  frequently  used  to  set  off  parenthetical  expres- 
sions ;  but  it  should  not  be  resorted  to  if  the  comma  can  be  used  — 
and  the  comma  is  capable  of  much  service  in  this  respect.  In 
case  the  dash  is  used  to  show  the  parenthesis,  commas  are  not 
really  needed  before  it. 

The  day  being  stormy  —  it  was  November  —  we  stayed  in  and 
read  old  stories. 

6.  The  Exclamation  Point  (!).— The  exclamation  point 
should  be  used  whenever  a  sentence  is  emphatically  exclamatory. 
After  exclamatory  oh,  ah,  alas,  see,  look,  etc. ,  there  should  always 
be  some  punctuation,  either  the  comma  or  the  exclamation  point ; 
not  so  after  the  word  O,  used  in  direct  address  —  "  O  thou  that 
rollest  above,  round  as  the  shield  of  my  fathers."  If  we  must 
use  the  conventional  ellipses  "  I  am  so  glad  to  see  you!  ",  "it  was 
such  a  charming  evening!  "  etc.,  let  us  say  them  and  write  them 
as  heart-felt  exclamations.  Doubtless  some  people  do  say  "  so 
glad  to  see  you"  with  no  more  interest  than  the  same  people 
show  in  shaking  hands.  When  several  short  exclamations  fol- 
low each  other,  or  when  an  exclamatory  sentence  is  quoted,  the 

2n  '  • 


546  APPENDIX  B  :    PUNCTUATION 

exclamation  point  is  not  followed  by  a  capital.  *'  How  glad  we 
are  to  have  been  here !  "  said  Mrs.  Jones,  trying  to  look  as  happy 
as  possible.  "Come  along,  sister!  come  along,  brother!  "  she 
went  on  cheerfully  as  she  wrapped  her  cloak  about  her. 

7.  The  Interrogation  Point  ( ? ) .  —  The  interrogation  point 
should  be  used  after  every  question,  whether  it  ends  in  the  midst 
of  a  sentence  or  not. 

Dante  sat  by  the  wayside  dreamily  watching  the  building  of 
Giotto's  tower— who  has  not  heard  of  the  lovely  campanile?  — 
when  a  youth  interrupted  his  brown  study.  '*  What  is  the  best 
thing  to  eat,  Messer  Dante? "  said  the  young  wag.  '''  An  Qgg," 
said  Dante,  without  hesitation.  A  year  later,  the  wag  happened 
that  way  again.  "  Now  I  will  catch  him !  "  said  he,  as  he  saw 
the  same  brown  figure  sitting  in  the  same  brown  study.  **  With 
what,  Messer  Dante?"  Dante  looked  at  the  youth  a  second. 
*'  With  salt,"  he  answered  calmly. 

8.  Parentheses  ().  — There  are  but  few  times  when  the 
"  curves,"  or  marks  of  parentheses,  are  actually  needed.  As 
Professor  Newcomer  remarks,  "It  is  well  to  avoid  paren- 
theses as  far  as  possible  by  dispensing  with  explanations  that 
are  not  vital,  and  by  finding  a  grammatical  construction  for  all 
others."  1 

Do  not  use  marks  of  parentheses  to  indicate  an  erasure  — 
matter  that  you  wish  to  leave  out.  The  proper  way  to  erase 
is  to  erase  with  knife  or  rubber,  or  else  strike  out  with  ink  or 
blue  pencil. 

9 .  Brackets  [  ] .  —  Brackets  usually  indicate  that  the  included 
matter  is  inserted  by  another  person  than  the  original  author ; 
that  is,  by  a  person  who  is  quoting  or  editing  the  passage.' 

He  [Goethe]  tells  us  that  character  is  developed  in  the  busy 
world,  though  intellect  is  developed  in  solitude. 

10.  Italics. —  1.  Italics  are  indicated  in  manuscript  by  under- 
scoring, capital  letters  by  double  underscoring.  A  good  rule  for 
italics  is  to  shun  them  —  that  is,  not  to  use  them  freely  to  denote 
emphasis.  Emphasis  can  be  secured  by  some  other  means  ;  for 
instance,  by  putting  the  emphatic  word  near  the  beginning  of 
the  sentence.     See  pages  206-208. 

2.  Use  italics  to  show  that  a  word  is  foreign : 
''Sophronia  likes  to  interlard  her  English  with  such  fine 
phrases  as  en  passant^  fin  de  siecle,  and  alfresco.'' 

1  Elements  of  Rhetoric^  p.  278. 


APPENDIX  B:    PUNCTUATION  547 

3.  Quote  or  italicize  single  words  if  they  are  specified  — 
spoken  of  as  words  : 

A  good  many  words  that  pass  muster  with  most  people  are 
not  really  in  good  use ;  for  example,  burglarize. 

11.  Quotation  Marks.—  1.  Marks  of  quotation,  or,  as  the 
English  call  them,  inverted  commas,  are  placed  around  direct 
quotations..  Many  students  neglect  a  part  of  this  little  duty  : 
they  fail  to  mark  the  end  of  the  quotation. 

2.  A  quotation  within  a  quotation  stands  between  single  in- 
verted commas : 

*'  We  were  gathered  on  shore,  watching  the  schooner.  Gray 
spoke  up :  '  She's  certainly  going  down,  and  we  must  let  the 
saving  station  know  it.' " 

3.  Sometimes  a  quotation  is  given  in  substance,  with  no 
attempt  at  accuracy  ;  to  show  this  fact  it  is  quoted  in  single 
commas,  thus:  'A  foolish  consistency  frightens  little  minds.' 
This  is  the  substance  of  Emerson's  remark,  "A  foolish  consist- 
ency is  the  bugbear  of  little  minds." 

12.  The  Apostrophe.  — 1.  One  use  of  the  apostrophe  is  to 
mark  the  plural  of  single  letters,  or  figures : 

Distinguish  between  your  8's  and  3's ;  dot  your  Vs  and  cross 
your  Vs. 

2.  The  commoner  use  of  the  apostrophe  is  to  mark  the  posses- 
sive case.  There  is,  however,  no  apostrophe  in  the  word  its, 
which  is  considered  an  adjective,  not  a  personal,  pronoun.  See 
also  p.  549,  Rule  9. 

13.  Asterisks  and  Leaders.  — A  row  of  asterisks  is  used 
to  show  an  omission.  Thus,  if  a  writer  were  quoting,  and 
wished  to  skip  a  page  or  two,  he  would  insert  this  sign  *  *  * 
But  if  he  omitted  only  a  few  words,  he  would  rather  use 
''leaders,"  thus  .  .  . 


APPENDIX   C:    SPELLING 

General  Exhortation.  — Make  it  a  habit  to  find  out  what 
the  actual  vowel  is  which  in  pronunciation  is  indistinct.  In 
correct  pronunciation  there  are  many  neutral  sounds,  as  in 
lettuce,  evil.  It  is  very  easy  to  form  wrong  notions  as  to  the 
written  form  of  these  indistinct  vowels;  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  are  often 
confounded  in  neutral  syllables.  What  are  the  missing  vowels 
in  the  following  words?  apol-gy,  d-scription,  depend-nt,  d-vine, 
-ndorse,  ecst-sy,  exist-nce,  experi-nce,  independ-nt,  ind-spensa- 
ble,  sep-rate,  stup-fied. 

Rule  1.  —  Final  e  is  usually  kept  when  a  sufiix  beginning 
with  a  consonant  is  added.  Examples:  venturesome,  loneli- 
ness, amazement.  Chief  exceptions  :  awful,  truly,  wholly ;  also 
the  tendency  is  to  prefer  judgment,  acknowledgment,  and 
abridgment  to  the  longer  form. 

Rule  2.  —  Final  e  preceded  by  a  consonant  is  usually  dropped 
if  the  suffix  added  begins  with  a  A^owel.  Example  :  move,  mov- 
ing. Chief  exceptions  :  Words  ending  in  ce  or  ge  retain  e  before 
able,  ably,  and  ous :  change,  changeable;  peace,  peaceable; 
notice,  noticeable ;  courage,  courageous. 

Rule  3.  —  Final  y  preceded  by  a  vowel  is  kept  before  any 
suffix.  Examples  :  joyful,  joyous,  boyish,  obeyed,  valleys.  Ex- 
ceptions :  laid,  said,  paid. 

Rule  4.  —  Final  y  preceded  by  a  consonant  is  changed  to  i 
before  a  suffix  not  beginning  with  i.  Examples :  try,  tries  ; 
country,  countries ;  merrily,  happier,  drier,  driest ;  gaily,  gaiety. 
Exceptions :  dryly,  shyly,  shyer,  shyest,  dryness,  shyness,  slyer, 
slyest,  slyness. 

Rule  5.  — Before  any  suffix,  monosyllables  and  words  whose 
548 


t  APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING  549 

accent  remains  on  the  last  syllable  double  a  final  consonant  if 
it  is  preceded  by  a  single  vowel.  Examples :  hopping,  forget- 
ting, referring.  Exception:  transferable.  Tranquillity  diOublQ^ 
a  consonant  preceded  by  a  double  vowel. 

(Rules  3  and  5  apply  thus  to  the  case  of  participles :  when  we 
pronounce  a  syllabi'^  short  before  a  sufUx,  we  usually  double 
the  consonant,  otherwise  not :  batting,  debating ;  canning,  can- 
ing; dinning,  dining;  hopping,  hoping;  lopping,  loping;  mop- 
ping, "moping ;  robbing,  robing ;  shinning,  shining ;  slopping, 
sloping;  loritten, writing;  batted, bated;  canned, caned;  dinned, 
dined  ;  hopped,  hoped  ;  lopped,  loped  ;  mopped,  moped ;  robbed, 
robed;  shinned,  shined ;  slopped,  sloped.) 

Rule  6.  —  A  polysyllable  whose  accent  remains  on  the  first 
syllable,  or  recedes  from  the  last  syllable  before  a  suffix,  does 
not  double  a  final  consonant.  Examples :  prefer,  preference ; 
benefit,  benefited;  also  (preferably)  traveler,  equaled,  wor- 
shiped. 

Rule  7.  —  (a)  Numbers  like  the  following  take  the  hyphen : 
seventy-three,  seventy-third. 

(6)  The  hyphen  is  needed  in  a  compound  adjective,  if  there 
is  any  doubt  as  to  the  meaning  when  the  hyphen  is  omitted. 
'* Red-hot  iron"  may  be  a  different  idea  from  **red  hot 
iron." 

(c)  Many  a  word  once  compounded  is  now  written  solid,  that 
is,  as  a  single  word:  railroad,  steamboat,  anybody,  anything, 
raindrop,  forever,  schoolboy,  schoolhouse,  schoolmate,  school- 
fellow {hut  school  days,  school  teacher,  school  district)  ;  myself, 
yourself  {hut  one's  self)  ;  childlike,  lifelike.  All  right  is  never 
a  compound,  but  always  two  words. 

Rule  8. — The  following  words  end  in  ihle,  whereas  a  very 
much  larger  number  end  in  ahle :  accessible,  admissible,  audi- 
ble, combustible,  comprehensible,  contemptible,  credible,  defen- 
sible, discernible,  divisible,  fallible,  flexible,  forcible,  horrible, 
illegible,  impossible,  incorrigible,  indelible,  indivisible,  invinci- 
ble, invisible,  irresistible,  permissible,  possible,  responsible, 
sensible,  visible. 

Rule  9.  —  The  possessive  singular  of  a  monosyllable  ending 
in  s  is  regularly  made  by  adding  's,  pronounced  as  an  extra 
syllable,  and  in  America  the  same  rule  is  very  properly  coming 
to  be  applied  to  words  of  more  than  one  syllable,  thus :  Jones's, 
Burns's,  Higgins's.    For  the  polysyllable  ending  in  the  sound  of 


550  APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING    . 

s,  merely  the  apostrophe  is  sometimes  required,  as  in  the  plural. 
Thus:  *' Moses'  seat "  ;  "  conscience'  sake." 

Rule  10.  — In  such  words  as  believe,  receive,  etc.,  i  follows  /, 
but  e  follows  c.  The  order  of  letters  in  the  ugly  word  lice  will 
fix  this  in  memory. 

Rule  11.  —  When  a  word  ends  in  o  preceded  by  another  vowel, 
the  plural  is  formed  by  adding  s.  Example :  cameos.  If  o  is 
preceded  by  a  consonant,  the  plural  is  usually  formed  by  adding 
es.  Examples :  echoes,  heroes,  mosquitoes,  potatoes.  Chief 
exceptions :  halos,  pianos,  solos. 

Rule  12.  —  "Word-breaking".  —  (a)  When  the  derivation 
permits,  divide  a  word  after  a  vowel:  propo-sition.  (b)  Avoid 
divisions  of  fewer  than  three  letters,  (c)  Divide  before  ing  in 
participles,  except  in  twin-kling,  chuc-kling,  etc.  {d)  Observe 
the  following  divisions :  provi-sion,  reli-gion,  etc. ;  fea-ture,  for- 
tune, pic-ture,  presump-tuous,  etc. ;  espe-cial,  inhabit-ant,  pecul- 
iar, pro-cess,  knowl-edge,  atmos-phere,  hemi-sphere. 

Rule  13.  —  Capitals.  —  Capitalize  nouns  and  adjectives  in 
titles  of  themes,  but  not  verbs  nor  adverbs  except  in  cases  of 
unusual  emphasis. 


A    LIST  OF  ABOUT    SIXTEEN    HUNDRED   WORDS 
OFTEN  MISSPELLED 

Note.  The  four  dictionaries  consulted  are  the  Century,  the 
Standard,  Webster,  and  Worcester.  In  most  cases  the  combined 
authority  of  the  Century  and  the  Standard  has  been  given  greater 
weight  than  the  combined  authority  of  Webster  and  Worcester. 
Occasionally,  however,  the  preference  of  Webster  and  Worces- 
ter is  the  preference  of  the  list,  as  in  the  case  of  aesthetic,  a  word 
coined  by  a  German  scholar  to  mean  a  given  thing,  and  there- 
fore a  word  which,  in  a  simplified  spelling,  loses  half  its  force. 
Simplification  of  spelling  is  apparently  a  desirable  thing,  but  in 
the  practical  application  is  a  most  dangerous  thing.  Apart  from 
its  effect  on  the  meaning  and  the  literary  value  of  the  word,  it 
is  often  unhappy  in  its  effect  on  the  very  matter  it  is  meant  to 
represent  —  the  sound.  The  country  is  even  now  in  danger  of 
losing  the  proper  pronunciation  of  program  on  account  of  the 


APPENDIX  C:    MISSPELLED    WORDS     551 

shortened  form.  As  to  British  forms,  words  ending  in  our,  as 
honour,  are  not  thus  given.  There  is  enough  affectation  among 
young  people  without  the  addition  of  these  Anglicisms.  More 
dignified  and  sonorous  than  the  American  form  they  may  possi- 
bly be  ;  but  honor  was  dignified  and  sonorous  enough  for  Augus- 
tus Caesar,  and  should  be  for  American  schoolboys.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  distinctively  British  forms  anyone,  everyone, 
someone,  are  recognized ;  they  name  ideas  quite  different  from 
any  one,  every  one,  some  one.  Also  the  longer  forms  of  judge- 
ment and  acknowledgement  are  given  second  place  because  most 
dictionaries  give  them  second  place,  rather  than  because  it 
seems  reasonable  to  violate  so  wide  an  analogy  (Rule  1)  and  to 
deal  summarily  with  two  words  over  which  the  human  mind 
might  profitably  linger. 

It  is  recommended  that,  before  the  end  of  his  high-school 
course,  the  student  be  required  to  know  the  meaning,  the  pro- 
nunciation, and  the  spelling  of  every  word  in  the  list.  There 
are  extremely  few  Avords  in  it  that  do  not  name  something 
already  contained  in  his  experience,  and  none  that,  under  proper 
circumstances,  may  not  properly  occur  in  his  themes. 

Abbreviations:  (C.)  =  Century,  (S.)  =  Standard,  (Web.)  = 
Webster's  International,  (Wor.)  =  Worcester. 


A. 

abbreviate 

abhorrence 

abiding 

abridgment 

absence 

absolutely 

abstinence 

abundance 

abusing 

academy 

acceding 

accelerate 

acceptable 

acceptance 

accessible 

accommodating 


accompaniment 

accompanist 

accordingly 

accruing 

accumulating 

accuracy 

accusative 

accusing 

achievement 

achieving 

aching 

acknowledging 
(  acknowledgment 
1  acknowledgement 

acquiring 

acquitting 

actively 

actor 


actually 

adaptability 

adaptable 

address 

adhere 

adherence 

adhering 

adjust 

admiring 

admissible 

admittance 

admitted 

advancing 

advantageous 

adventurous 
(  advertising 
(  advertizing 

advice 


552 


APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING 


advisable 

advising 
f  aesthetic 
1  esthetic 

affirmative 

affront 
aforesaid 

aggravating 

aghast 

agreeing 

ahead 
(  aide-de-camp  (C.) 
\  aid-de-camp  (S.) 

airily 

airiness 

aisle 

allegiance 

alleging 

alleviating 

alleys 

allopathically 

allowance 

alluding 

alluring 

allusion 

already 

altar  (table) 

alter  (change) 

alternating 

always 

amateur 

ambiguous 

ammunition 

amount 

amplifying 

amusing 

analogous 

analysis 

analyze 

analyzing 

anarchist 


angular 

ankle 

annexation 

anniversary 

announcing 

annually 

anoint 

anonymous 

antecedent 

anthracite 

antics 

antipathy 

antiseptic 

anyone 

anywhere 

aperture 

aping 

apologizing 

apostrophe 

apothecary 

{  appal 

I  appall 
appalled 
apparatus 
apparent 
appearance 
appeasing 
appetite 
applause 
appreciating 
apprehension 
approving 
apropos 
aqueduct 
aquiline 
arbitrarily 
architectural 
arduous 
arguing 
argument 
arising 


aristocracy 

array 

arriving 

artfully 

artifice 

artificially 

artisan 

ascent  (a  rising) 

assent  (agree) 

askew 

asphalt 

aspirant 


assessor 

assimilating 

assistance 

assistant 

associating 

assurance 

asthma 
{  astray 
I  estray  (animal) 

athletic 
~  atmosphere 

attach 

attendance 

attiring 

audible 

audience 

austere 

authentically 

authoritative 

auxiliary 

availability 

avenging 

averaging 

avoidable 
.  avoidance 

avoirdupois 

awaking 


APPENDIX  C:    MISSPELLED    WOMDS     553 

awful 

bearing 

blaspheme 

awfully 

baring  (stripping) 

blaspheming 

awfulness 

bearable 

blasphemous 

beautifully 

blazing 

B. 

becoming 

blissful 

bedridden 

blissfully 

babbling 

beforehand 

blond  (masc.) 

babies 

beginning 

blonde  (fern.) 

bacillus 

begrudging 

blurred 

backsliding 

behaving 

boar  (swine) 

bacteria 

believe 

bore  (nuisance;  per- 

bade (did  bid) 

believing 

forate  ;  did  bear) 

baffling 

belittling 

bonfire 

baggage 

benediction 

born    (brought   into 

baking 

benefaction 

life) 

balancing 

benefactor 

borne  (carried) 

balky 

beneficence 

boulder 

balloon 

beneficent 

boyish 

banana 

beneficial 

bracing 

bandaging 

benefited 

bragging 

barbaric 

benign 

braving 

barbarity 

berating 

breach  (gap) 

barbarous 

bereavement 

breech  (of  gun) 

barefaced             , 

berry  (fruit) 

breadth 

barefooted 

bury  (inter) 

breath 

bare-headed 

berth  (bed) 

breathe 

bargain 

birth  (coming  into 

breathing 

barred 

life) 

brethren 

barrel 

beseech 

bribing 

barrenness 

besetting 

bridal  (nuptial) 

base  (low) 

besieging 

bridle  (check) 

bass  (voice) 

bestirred 

brimful 

basin 

bestirring 

bruising 

basing 

beverage 

bureau 

bas-relief 

bibliography 

batted 

biceps 

C. 

batting 

bicycling 

batteries 

bidding 

cajoling 

bazaar 

biding  (waiting) 

calamities 

beach  (shore) 

biscuit 

calendar 

beech  (tree) 

blackguard 

callous 

054                APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING 

campaign 

cereal  (grain) 

coinciding 

caned 

ceremonious 

coincidence 

canned 

chafing 

coincidents 

cannibal 

chaffing 

collapsing 

cannon 

chagrined 

collectively 

^^anon  (law) 

challenging 

collegiate 

canon  (gorge) 

chancing 

collie 

canvas  (cloth) 

changeable 

collision 

canvass  (search) 

changing 

colonel 

caped 

chaplain 

column 

capped 

charging 

coma  (stupor) 

capital  (city) 

charred 

comma 

capitol  (building) 

chasing 

combated 

caprice 

chasm 

combating 

capricious 

chatting 

comfortable 

capsizing 

cheerfully 

coming 

captivity- 

cheerless 

commanding 

capturing 

chestnut 

commencing 

carat  (weight) 

chiding 

commit 

caret  (sign) 

chilliness 

committing 

carrot  (vegetable) 

chiming 

committee 

carcass 

chimneys 

commodore 

carefully- 

chipping 

communicating 

caring 

chloroform 

coijiparing 

cargo 

choir  (singers) 

compass 

cargoes 

chopping 

compatible 

caricature 

chronic 

compelled 

carriage 

circling 

compete 

carried 

circuit 

competing 

casing 

circuitous 

competent 

caste 

civilly 

complement 

casually 

clayey 

complementary 

catalogue 

climb  (ascend) 

(completing) 

catarrh 

closing 

compliment  (praise) 

caterpillar 

cloth 

complimentary 

causing 

clothe 

completing 

caving 

clothing 

completely 

ceasing 

clumsiness 

composing 

cedar 

coalesce 

comprehensible 

celebrating 

coffee 

concede 

cemetery 

coherence 

conceding 

APPENDIX 

C:    MISSPELLED 

WORDS     5i 

conceit 

cringing 

delicacy 

conceivable 

crises  (pi.  of  crisis) 

delightfully 

conceiving 

criticism 

deliverance 

concise 

1  criticize  (C,  S.) 
(  criticise 

deluding 

concurring 

deluging 

condescension 

crystal 

democracy 

confectionery- 

crystallize 

demurring 

conference 

curing 

dependent 

confidant  (friend) 

currant  (fruit) 

deprecating 

confident  (positive) 

current  (stream) 

deprivation 

confidence 

curtain 

descendant 

conqueror 

cylinder 

descent 

conscience 

describe 

conscientious 

D. 

describing 

consistent 

description 

contemporaneous 

dairy 

desert  (place) 

contemptible 

damage 

dessert  (food) 

contemptuous 

damaging 

deserving 

continually- 

dancing 

desirable 

continuing 

daring 

desiring 

continuous 

dating 

despair 

convalescence 

dazzling 

despatch 

convalescing 

debarring 

despising 

convenience   , 

debasing 

despondency 

convincing 

deceitfully 

determining 

coolly- 

deceive 

detestable 

co-operating 

deceiving 

detriment 

corps 

decency 

develop 

corpse 

deciding 

development 

correspondence 

decisive 

devising 

correspondents 

declaring 

devoting 

council 

declining 

diagonally 

counsel 

decreasing 

diameter 

counseling 

decrepit 

diary 

counselor 

defendant 

dictatorial 

counsellor 

deference 

dictionary 

courageous 

deferred 

difference 

courteous 

deferring 

difadence 

covetous 

deficiency 

digestible 

craziness 

deign 

dilapidated 

creasing 

delegate 

dining 

56                APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING 

dinning 

elegant 

everyone 

disappearance 

eligible 

everywhere 

disappoint 

ellipse 

evincing 

discernible 

elliptical 

evoking 

disclosing 

elsewhere 

evolving 

discouragement 

embarrass 

exaggerating 

discouraging 

emphasizing 

examining 

disguising 

emptiness 

exceed 

disingenuous 

enabling 

excellent 

disobedience 

I  enclose  (S.) 

excessively 

disobliging 

i  inclose  (C.) 

exchangeable 

disparagingly 

endorse 
.  indorse 

exclusively 

dispatch  (see  de- 

excrescence 

spatch) 

enduring 

excusable 

displeasing 

enemies 

exemplify 

dissension 

engaging 

exemption 

dissuade 

ennobling 

exercise 

dividing 

enrolment 
enrollment 

exercising 

divine 

exhaust 

divulging 

ensuing 

exhibit 

dreariness 

entomology 

existence 

dried 

entrust 

expectancy 

drier 

envelop  (verb) 

expediency 

driest 

envelope  (noun) 

experiencing 

drizzling 

equaled 

expiring 

drunkenness 

equally 

exploring 

dryly 

equipped 

expressible 

duel  (fight) 

erroneous 

exquisitely 

dulness 

escaping 

extensively 

dullness 

especially 

extraneous 

during 

essential 

extravagant 

etc.  {not  ect.) 

extremely 

E. 

etiquette 

exuberance 

etymology 

eying 

eccentricity 

eulogizing 

ecstasy 

evanescence 

F. 

edifice 

evasively 

effervesce 

evenness 

fain  (desirous) 

efficacy 

eventually 

fallible 

efficiency 

evermore 

falsehood 

eighth 

every-day  (adj.) 

falsely 

APPENDIX  C:    MISSPELLED    WORDS      557 


fancifully 

forfeit 

genealogy 

fantastically 

forgetting 

generally 

farewell 

forgetfully 

gesturing 

faring 

forgiving 

ghastliness 

fascinating 

formidable 

gibe  (joke) 

feted  (feasted) 

forsaking 

gibing 

fatiguing 

forth  (forward) 

giving 

fearfully 

forth-coming 

glancing 

feign  (pretend) 

forty 

gliding 

feint  (pretence) 

foully 

glisten 

^fiance  (masc.) 

freezing 

good-by 

fiance'e  (fern.) 

frieze  (part  of 

good-humored 

(betrothed  is 

building) 

gorgeous 

better  than 

fried 

gossiped 

either.) 

fringing 

grandchild 

fidgeting 

fulfil 

granddaughter 

figuring 

fullness  (C.) 

grandson 

fineness 

fulness  (S.) 

grievance 

firing 

fumbling 

gripping 

flaming 

fuming 

grisly  (frightful) 

flannel 

funereal  (adj.) 

grizzly  (gray) 

flaring 

furnace 

groping 

fleecing 

furniture 

groveling 

flexibility 

furtherance 

guarantee  (verb) 

flowery 

furthermore 

guarantees 

foible 

guaranty  (noun) 

foraging 

G. 

guidance 

forbearance 

guiding 

forcing 

gainsaid 

guttural 

forcible 

gallop 

foreboding 

galvanize 

H. 

forecast 

gamble 

habitable 

forefather 

gambol 

habitually 

forego 

gamy 

hail  (salute ;  frozen 

forehead 

gantlet  (hard 

rain) 

foreign 

course) 

hale  (robust) 

foreigner 

gauntlet  (glove) 

hair-brained 

foremost 

gaiety 

halloo 

forenoon 

gayety 

hallooed 

forethought 

■  gaily 
gayiy 

halo 

forever 

halos 

558               APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING 

handful 

hiding 

ill-bred 

handicap 

highwayman 

illegal 

hand-made 

hindrance- 

illegible 

handspring           ^ 

hinging 

illegitimate 

handwriting 

hiring 

illimitable 

happiness 

historically 

illiterate 

haranguing 

hitherto 

illogical 

hatchet 

hodge-podge 

ill-omened 

hatefulness 

hoeing 

ill-tempered 

hating 

homeliest 

ill-timed 

haughtily- 

homeopathy 

ill-will 

having 

homogeneous 

imagery 

haziug 

horribly 

imaginary 

headache 

horrified 

imagining 

head-first 

horseshoeing 

impassable 

headlight 

household 

impassive 

headlong 

housekeeper 

impede 

head-quarters 

housewife 

impeding 

headstrong 

howsoever 

impenetrable 

healthfulness 

humdrum 

imperceptible 

hearsay- 

humorous 

Imperiled 

heaving 

hundred  fold 

impertinence 

height 

hurrah 

implacable 

helpful 

hurtfully 

implement 

henceforth 

hygiene 

importance 

herbage 

hygienic 

impossibility 

hereabout 

hyperbole 

impracticable 

hereafter 

hyphen 

improving 

hereby 

hypnotize 

improvement 

hereditary 

hypocrisy 

improvising 

herein 

hypocrite 

impunity 

hereto 

hypothesis 

inability 

heretofore 

hysterics 

inaccessible 

herewith 

inaccuracy 

heritage 

I. 

inadequacy 

hero 

inadvertent 

heroes 

idiosyncrasy 

inasmuch 

heroically 

idiotically 

inattentive 

hesitancy 

idleness 

inaudible 

heterogeneous 

idyl 

incessant 

hey  (exclam.) 

ignorance 

incidentally 

APPENDIX 

C:    MISSPELLED    WORDS      i 

inclining 

insistence 

K. 

inclose  (see  enclose) 

instalment 

including 

insufferable 

kerosene 

inconceivable 

intelligent 

i  kidnaped 
(  kidnapped 

incongruous 

intelligible 

inconsistencies 

intercede 

knoll 

inconvenience 

interceding 

knowledge 

incorrigible 

interference 

incorruptible 

interfering 

L. 

incurred 

interminable 

labeled 

indebted 

interrupt 

laboratory 

indefatigable 

intervene 

lamentable 

indefensible 

intervening 

laming 

indefinable 

intimacy 

landlady 

indefinite 

intrepid 

languor 

independence 

intricacy 

lanky 

independent 

intruding 

lapel 

indescribable 

intrust        (see 

en-    lassitude 

indifference 

trust) 

laughable 

indigenous 

invading 

led  (guided) 

indigestible 

inveigle 

lief  (willingly) 

indiscriminate 

invisible 

leaving 

indispensable 

irascible 

lecturing 

indisputable 

iridescent 

legendary 

indistinguishable 

iron-gray 

legibility 

inefficient 

ironically 

leisure 

inevitable 

irradiate 

leniency 

inexhaustible 

irreparable 

lenient 

inexpedient 

irresistible 

lettuce 

inextricable 

issuing 

leveled 

infectious 

italicize 

leveling 

inference 

itself 

libeled 

inferred 

license 

ingenious 

lightening 

ingenuous 

J. 

lightning 

inherent 

jarred 

likelihood 

inheritance 

jogging 

likely 

injuries 

joking 

likewise 

inscrutable 

judging      ^ 

lily 

inseparable  * 

( judgment 
( judgement 

lining 

inseparably 

linen 

559 


560 


APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING 


liquefy 

literature 

litterateur 

living 

loathsome 

lodging 
[  lodgment 
(  lodgement 

loneliness 

lose,  losing 

loose,  loosing 

lounging 

loveliness 

ludicrous 


(  meager 


meagre 


luminous 
lunatic 
luscious 
luxuriance 

M. 

macadamized 

macaroni 

macaroon 

madam 

magically 

maintenance 

majestically 

making 

managing 

manageable 
(  maneuver  (S.) 
(  manoeuver  (C.) 

mantel  (shelf) 

mantle  (cloak) 

manufacturing 

many 

marketed 

marriage 

marvelous 


meantime 

meanwhile 

measurably 
[  medieval  (S.,C.) 
-!  mediaeval  (Web. , 
[     Wor.) 

medley 

merely 

message 

messenger 

metal  (e.g.  iron) 

mettle  (spirit) 

midday 

middle-aged 

midnight 

midsummer 

midwinter 

mimicking 

mineralogy 

miscellany 

mischief 

misconceive 

mismanagement 

misstate 

mistaking 

moccasin 

modeled 

modified 

momentarily 

monastery 

moneys 

monkeys 

mopping 

moping 

moreover 

mosquitoes 

mountainous 

movable 

moving 


multifarious 
multiplicity 

N. 

nabbed 

nabbing 

naively 

naivete 

naming 

namesake 

naphtha 

narrating 

nationally 

naturalness 

nauseating 

navigable 

necessarily 

necessary 

necessaries 

necessitating 

negligence 

nerving 

nineteen 

ninety 

noes  (pi.  of  no) 

noising 

noiseless 

noisiness 

nonchalance 

nonplused 

nonsense 

noting 

noteworthy 

noticing 

noticeably 

novelty 

nowadays 

numbness 

nutriment 

nutritious 


APPENDIX  C:    MISSPELLED   WORDS     561 


0. 

ostentatious 

paving 

ostracize 

pavement 

oatmeal 

outgeneraled 

pebbly 

obedience 

outgoing 

peculiar 

objectionable 

outlining 

peculiarities 

obliging 

outrageous 

pedal  (foot-lever) 

obscene 

outshining 

pedaling 

observance 

outstripped 

'pedler  (S.) 
peddler  (C.) 

observing 

overalls 

obsolete 

overawing 

peering 

obstinately- 

overran 

pell-mell 

obtainable 

overrating 

penalties 

occasionally 

overshoe 

penetrable 

occupied 

overtaking 

penetration 

occurred 

oxygen 

penitent 

occurring 

perceivable 

occurrence 

P. 

perceiving 

offense 

pacing 

perceptible 

offensive 

package 

performance 

o£Scious 

pageant 

perilous 

omelet 

pailfuls 

permanence 

ominous 

painstaking 

permanent 

omission 

palate  (roof  of  mouth) 

permissible 

omitted 

palpable 

permitting 

one's  self 

panegyric 

perpendicular 

only- 

panorama 

perpetrate 

opaque 

parading 

persevere 

operating 

paradise 

persevering 

opponent 

parallel 

persistence 

opportune 

paralleled 

persistent 

opposing 

paralysis 

personally 

orally 

paralyzing 

perspiration 

orator 

parenthesis 

perverse 

ordnance 

parenthetically 

petulance 

ordinance 

partaking 

phenomena 

ordinarily 

participant 

phenomenon 

organizing 

participle 

phosphoresce 

origin 

partridge 

phrasing 

orthoepy 

passable 

physical 

orthography 

pasteboard 

physically 

ostensible 

2o 

pasturing 

.    pickpocket 

562 


APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING 


seizing 

site  (.situation) 

stationary  (fixed) 

seizure 

sight  (vision) 

stationery       (paper, 

self-evident 

cite  (quote) 

etc.) 

self-indulgent 

(  skilful 

stayed  (remained) 

self-reliance 

\  skillful 

staid  (dignified) 

selfsame 

sliding 

steadfast 

^self-sufficiency 

slurring 

stereotype 

semicolon 

slyness 

stirred 

separable 

slyer 

stolid 

sequence 

slyest 

stony 

serene 

smiling 

stooping 

serenity 

smoking 

stopped 

sergeant 

smolder 

stopping 

serviceable 

snoring 

straits  (difficulties) 

servile 

solace 

stratagem 

shaking 

solacing 

strenuous 

shaming 

solemn 

striving 

shamming 

soliloquize 

studded 

shaping 

somebody 

studied 

sharing 

somehow 

stupefied 

shining 

someone 

suave 

shinning 

something 

subdivide 

shoeing 

sometime 

subservience 

shoving 

somewhat 

subsistence 

shriveled 

somewhere 

subterranean 

shied 

soothing 

subtle  (sly, "deep ") 

shyer 

sophomore 

success 

shyest 

souvenir 

successful 

shyly 

sparing 

suddenness 

shyness 

sparring 

sufferance 

side-walk 

spiritless 

suggested 

siding 

spiting 

summary 

significance 

spitting 

superintendent 

significant 

spontaneity 

supersede 

silliness 

spontaneous 

superseding 

similar 

spryer 

supervening 

simile 

stake  (post;  wager) 

surcharging 

sincere 

steak  (meat) 

surfeit 

sincerity 

staring 

surplus 

sirup  (S.) 
syrup  (C.) 

starring 

surprising 

starving 

susceptible 

APPENDIX  C:    MISSPELLED    WORDS     563 


propensity 

recipe 

ripened 

prophecy  (noun) 

recognizing 

ripped 

prophesy  (verb) 

recollection 

rivaling 

prosaically 

reconciling 

robbing 

protuberance 

recovery 

robing 

provable 

recurrence 

roguish 

providing 

reducing 

ruing 

proving 

redundant 

providence 

reference 

S. 

provincial 

referred 

provincialism 

refusing 

sacrifice 

psychological 

regretting 

sacrificing 

psychology 

rehearsal 

sacrilegious 

publicity 

relatively 

salable 

pulleys 

relevant 

salient 

pulmonary 

remarkably 

sanguine 

purposing 

remedies 

sarcasm 

pursuing 

remembrance 

sarcastically 

reminiscence 

saucily 

Q. 

remittance 

saving 

quarreled 

remodeling 

savior  (one  who  res- 

remonstrance 

cues) 

quiescent 
quieted 

reposing 

Saviour  (the  Christ) 

repugnance 

scarcity 

R. 

requiring 

scaring 

rescuing 

scathing 

radiance 

resistance 

scenery 

raging 

resolving 

scenic 

raillery 

resonant 

schedule 

raising 

restaurant 

scissors 

ranging 

restoring 

scoring 

rapt  (absorbed) 

reticence 

scraping 

rarely 

retiring 

scrimmage 

raspberries 

retrieving 

scurrility 

really 

reveled 

scurrilous 

re-appear 

revenging 

seasick 

re-assure 

rewritten 

sea-side 

rebelled 

rheumatism 

secede 

recede 

(  rhyme 
1  rime 

secrecy 

receding 

seine  (net) 

receiving 

rhythm 

seized 

564             APF 

'ENBIX  C:    SPELLING 

picnic 

postpone 

preliminary 

picnicking 

postponing 

premature 

picturesque 

potatoes 

premeditating 

piece 

powerful 

premise 

piquancy 

powerfully 

preparation 

pique 

practicability 

preparing 

pitch-pine 

practicable 

prescription 

pitiably- 

practical 

presence 

pitiless 

practically 

presentable 

pittance 

j  practise (n.v.,C.,S.) 

presentiment 

placidity- 

'  practice  (n.,  C.) 

presentment 

placing 

1  practising 
I  practicing 

prestige 

plagiarism 

pretense 

plagiarize 

prairie 

pretension 

plaguing 

praising 

pretentious 

playfulness 

praiseworthy 

prevalence 

pleasant 

prancing 

pricing 

plebeian 

precarious 

primarily 

plentiful 

precede 

primitive 

plied 

preceding 

principal 

plow 

precedence 

principle 

plumbing 

precedents 

principally 

pluming 

precipice 

privacy 

plunging 

precipitate 

privilege 

pocketfuls 

precise 

probably 

poising 

precisely 

problem 

poisonous 

precision 

procedure 

poking 

precocity 

proceed 

polysyllable 

predicament 

procuring 

pommeled 

predicate 

producing 

ponderous 

predict 

profitable 

poplar 

predominance 

'  program 

poppies 

predominant 

programme     (pro- 

pored (studied) 

pre-eminence 

nounced     alike, 

poring  (studying) 

prefacing 

with  a  sharp  a.) 

porridge 

preferred 

prominence 

posing 

preferring 

promiscuous 

possession 

preferable 

promising 

possessor 

preference 

proposing 

possibility 

preferment 

propped 

possibly 

prejudice 

propelled 

APPENDIX  C:    MISSPELLED   WORDS     565 


suspense 

top-heavy 

j  unskilful 
1  unskillful 

sustenance 

tornadoes 

syllable 

torpedoes 

untiring 

symbolizing 

tranquilize 

uproarious 

sympathize 

tranquillity 

urbanity 

synopsis 

transferable 

urging 

systematic 

transferred 
transferring 

using 

T. 

transparency 
transpiring 

V. 

table  d'hote 

traveled 

vain  (conceited) 

tacit 

traveler 

vane  (weather-cock) 

taciturn 

traveling 

variable 

taking 

tremulous 

vegetable 

tangible 

trepidation 

veil  (gauze,  etc.) 

tantalize 

trimmed 

vein  (blood-vessel)* 

tasting 

tripped 

venal 

technical 

trustworthy 

venial 

telegram 

tumultuous 

vengeance 

telephone 

two-fold 

venison 

temperament 

tying 

veracity 

temperature 

tyrannical 

verging 

tenacity 

tyrannize 

veritable 

tenement 

• 

vertebrate 

testament 

U. 

veto 

thankfully 

vetoed 

thatch 

ugliness 

vetoing 

their  (of  them) 

unanimity 

vice  (sin) 

there  (in  that  place) 

unanimous 

vise  (clamp) 

thereabouts 

unceasing 

vicissitude 

thereafter 

unconscious 

vied 

therefore 

underrate 

vying 

thereupon 

underscore 

vigilance 

thinness 

undertaking 

villain 

tidbit 

uneasily 

villainous 

timing 

unequally 

villainy 

tingeing 

unique 

visible 

tiring 

unmistakable 

visionary 

together 

unparalleled 

vivify 

tomahawk 

unprecedented 

vivisection 

toothache 

unprincipled 

vocabulary 

566               APPENDIX  C:    SPELLING 

volleys 

whereas 

worshiping 

voluntary- 

wherefore 

(  wrapped 

vouchsafe           ^ 

wherein 

i  wrapt 

vulnerable 

whereupon 

wreathe 

wherever 

wreathing 

whirred 

writing 

W. 

whisky 

written 

wading 

wholesome 

wry  (twisted) 

wainscot 

wholly 

waive  (relinquish) 

wield 

Y. 

waking 

(  wilful 
1  willful 

warily 

yacht 

warring 

wistfully 

yeoman 

wasteful 

woe-begone 

yield 

wasting 

woeful  (C.) 
.woful  (S.) 

yoke 

waylay 

yolk 

weird 

woolen 

were 

woolly 

Z. 

where 

worshiped 

zigzag 

whereabouts 

worshiper 

zigzagged " 

INDEX   OP  RHETORICAL    SUBJECTS 


Abbreviate,  297. 

Ability,  298. 

Abridge,  297. 

Abridgment,  72,  75-80. 

Accept,  298. 

Acceptation,  298. 

Acceptance,  298. 

Adjectives,  of  praise,  336;  and 
adverbs,  534-535. 

Advent,  275. 

Adverbs,  position  of,  201-206, 
passim ;  and  adjectives,  534- 
535. 

Affect,  298. 

After,  afterwards,  298. 

Aggravate,  283. 

Aggregation,  275. 

Ain't,  269-270. 

Allegory,  364-365. 

Allow,  268. 

Allude,  299. 

Ambiguity,  defined,  306;  in 
collocation ,  202-203.  See  also 
under  Precision,  passim. 

Anecdote,  the,  407-409. 

Anglo-Saxon,  the  —  element  in 
English ,  254-255 ;  256, 25^)-260, 
332. 

Antithesis,  187-188.  See  also 
under  Contrast. 

Any,  270. 

Anyway,  284. 

Apostrophe,  the,  547. 

Argumentation,  512-531 ;  stu- 
dent s  relation  toward,.  512- 


519 ;  relation  of  —  to  exposi- 
tion, 519-521 ;  the  proposition 
in,  521-522 ;  proofs  in, 522 ;  the 
special  issue  in,  522-523;  the 
brief  in,  524-526;  persuasion 
in,  527-528;  diction  in,  528; 
subjects  for,  529-531. 

Artist,  275. 

Association,  mental,  laws  of, 
18-39, 98-113.  See  also  Time, 
Space,  Generalization,  Cause 
and  Effect,  Comparison  and 
Contrast. 

Asterisks,  547. 

At,  270. 

Avocation,  299. 

Awful,  271,  282-283. 

B 

Back  out,  283. 

Bad    taste,    269-279,    280-282, 

354-359,  passim. 
Balance,  273. 
Banjoist,  275. 
Banquet,  273. 
Barbarism,  270,  273. 
Beastly,  273. 
Beside,  besides,  299. 
Bible,  style  of,  331-332. 
Big,  283. 
Blame  on,  271. 
Blickey,  267. 
Brackets,  546. 
Bring,  301 ;  —  about,  310. 
Broke,  271. 
Burglarize,  293-294. 


567 


568     INDEX  OF  RHETOBICAL    SUBJECTS 


Business,  value  of  composition 

in,  1. 
But  what,  271. 
By  the  name  of ,  for  "of  the 

name  of,"  283. 

^  C 

Calculate,  268. 

Can't,  279. 

Capacity,  298. 

Carry  on,  283. 

Case,  533-535. 

Casuality,  casualty,  299. 

Cause  and  effect,  20,  31-33, 
105-107,  176-177. 

Celtic,  the  —  element  in  Eng- 
lish, 254. 

Change  of  structure  in  sen- 
tence.    See  Unity  of  form. 

Character,  299. 

Children,  their  use  of  loose 
sentences,  209. 

Chinese,  words  in  English,  258. 

Circumlocution,  240,  242-243. 

Claim  that,  273. 

Class,  its  rights,  7 ;  as  a  public, 
11-15. 

Clearness,  defined,  16;  affected 
by  values  of  words,  345-359, 
passim ;  affected  by  imagery, 
359-371,  passim.  See  also 
under  Ambiguity,  Vague- 
ness, Collocation,  Coherence. 

Clever,  268. 

Climatic,  293. 

Climax,  59.  See  also  under 
Suspense. 

Co-ed,  274. 

Coherence,  defined,  16;  in 
order  of  topics,  51-58;  be- 
tween paragraphs,  146-155 ; 
in  order  of  sentences,  155- 
157 ;  in  order  of  words,  201- 
206. 


Coinage  of  words,  290-294. 

Collocation,  201-206. 

Colloquial  usage,  defined,  16- 
17,  230-231,  240,  279-285. 

Colon,  544-545. 

Combine,  a,  274.  * 

Comma,  177-179,  541-544. 

Comparison  and  contrast,  20- 
23,  107-113,  177-178. 

Complected,  268. 

Composition,  value  of,  1-3; 
derivation  of  word,  18. 

Compound  sentence,  punctua- 
tion of, 190-191 , 540-541 , 542  A. 

Concord,  535-536. 

*'  Conformity,  Logical,"  307- 
309. 

Conjunctions,  ellipsis  of,  231 ; 
between  paragraphs,  151- 
152;  between  sentences,  201. 

Connectives  between  para- 
graphs, 151-155 ;  between  sen- 
tences, 201 ;  ellipsis  of,  230. 

Contemptibly,  contemptuously, 
300. 

Continual,  continuous,  300. 

Contractions,  illegitimate,  273, 
274,  284;  legitimate,  279. 

Contrast,  comparison  and,  20- 
23, 107-113,  177-179. 

Correspond,  280. 

Could,  might,  283. 

Council,  counsel,  299-300. 

Cunning,  285. 

Cute,  285. 

D 

Damage,  274. 

Dash,  184,  545. 

Dehut,  274. 

Deduction,  68. 

Definition  of  rhetorical  terms, 

16-17. 
Definitive,  301. 
Demean,  degrade,  301. 


INDEX  OF  RHETOBICAL   SUBJECTS     569 


Description ,  412-473 ;  by  general 
impression  and  details,  412- 
462;  by  traveler's  method, 
437-440;  by  effects,  462-464; 
generalized,  464-473. 

Desist,  280. 

Diction,  defined,  345 ;  tone  in, 
294-296. 

Differ  from,  — with,  311. 

Digression,  120-121,  167-168, 
169-170,  172-173,  175,  177. 

Disremember,  268. 

Disrobe,-  280. 

Distingue,  275. 

Doc,  273. 

Dock,  301. 

Don't,  279. 

Drank,  drunk,  272. 

During,  284. 

Dutch,  the  — element  in  Eng- 
lish, 257-258. 


Echo,  paragraph,  148-149;  sen- 
tence, 199. 

Electricute,  electrocute,  293. 

Elegant,  274. 

Ellipsis,  229-238,  270,  285. 

Else,  271. 

Emphasis,  defined,  16 ;  in  order 
of  topics,  58-69;  in  order  of 
sentences,  158-163 ;  in  punctu- 
ation of  sentences,  189-194; 
in  order  of  words,  206-208. 

Enact,  306. 

Endorse,  273. 

English,  vocabulary,  252-266; 
idiom,  see  Idiom. 

Enthuse,  273. 

Equivocalness,  defined,  306. 

Euphony,  291. 

Except,  298. 

Exclamation  point,  545-546. 

Exercise,  written,  defined,  16. 

Expect,  271. 


Exposition,  28-33,  474 ;  of  indi- 
viduals, 474-499 ;  generalized, 
498-501. 


Faddist,  275. 

Fancy,  272. 

Fetch,  301. 

Fewer,  302. 

Fictitious  narrative,  411. 

Fierce,  281. 

Figurative  language,  326-330, 
359-371. 

'' Final  Draft  Paper,"  8. 

Fin  de  siecle,  274. 

Fix,  283,  284. 

Fixed  up,  284. 

"  First  Manual  of  Composition, 
A,"  ix,  21,  22,  40,  179,  192, 

,  223. 

Flustrate,  283. 

Folks,  283. 

Force,  defined,  16;  affected  by 
values  of  words,  345-359,  pas- 
sim; affected  by  imagery, 
359-371,  i9as5zm. 

Forehanded,  267. 

French,  the  —  element  in  Eng- 
lish, 256,  260-264,  passim. 

Froze,  271. 

Funny,  301. 

G 

General  and  specific  words, 
345-350. 

Generalized,  narration,  409- 
411;  description,  464-473;  ex- 
position, 498-501. 

Generalization  and  facts,  28- 
31,  55-56,  102-105,  173-176. 

Gentlemen,  280. 

Gents,  274. 

Ghastly,  281. 

Go  hard  with,  310. 

Golden,  329. 


570     INDEX  OF  RHETORICAL    SUBJECTS 


Good,  as  adverb,  272. 
Government,  536-537. 
Graduate,  301. 
Grammar,  533-539. 
Grand,  for  pretty,  275. 
Greek,  the  —  element  in  Eng- 
lish, 259,  264. 
Growth,  of  the  outline,  18-39. 
Guess,  285. 

H 

Had  rather,  310. 

Hadn't  ought,  271. 

Haint,  271. 

Handy,  284. 

Have,  284. 

Healthful,  healthy,  301. 

Heaps,  271. 

Heavy,  328. 

Help,  284. 

High,  329. 

Historical,  narrative,  372-411; 

present,  377-379. 
Hold,a— ,  271. 
How,  272. 

However,  position  of,  201. 
However  could,  271. 
Hybrid  words,  292. 
Hyperbole,  363. 
''  Hypha,  Woronin's,"  285. 


Idiom,  202,  207-208,  309-316. 
Illiteracy,    the    vulgarism    of, 

269-272. 
Illy,  273. 

Imagery,  .326-330,  359-371. 
Imaginary,  306. 
Implied  reference,  248-251. 
Impropriety,  270,  273;  see  also 

under  Precision. 
In,  284  ;  —  their  midst,  310. 
Inaugurate,  275. 
Indexes,  indices,  301. 


Indian,  East,  words  in  English, 
258;  American,  257,  258,  259. 
Induction,  68. 
In^de  of,  271. 
Interrogation  point,  546. 
Invite,  an,  273. 

Italian,  words  in  English,  257. 
Italics,  546-547. 


Jewels,  jewellery,  301. 
Junction,  of  sections,  118-120; 

of  paragraphs,    146-155;    of 

sentences,  198-201. 


K 


Kind  of,  268. 


Lady,  280. 

Lady  friend  for  lady,  274. 
Last,  latest,  301. 
Latin,   the  —  element  in   Eng- 
lish,   253-254,    260-264,    265- 

266. 
''Leaders,"  547. 
Learn,  271. 
Length  of  parts  in  theme,  69- 

81;    of    paragraph,   121-140; 

of  sentence,  140-144,  183-194. 
Less,  302. 
Letter- writing,  incoherent,  52- 

53. 
Light,  328. 

Like,  for  as,  267 ;  heavy  — ,  268. 
Likeness  and  difference,  20-23, 

107-113,  177-179. 
Line,  in  the  —  of,  274. 
Literary  usage,  287-290. 
Local  usage,  266-269. 
Locate,  268. 
Logic,  68. 

''Logical  Conformity,"  307-309. 
Look,  to  be,  271;   beautifully, 

nicely,  272. 


INDEX  OF  RHETORICAL    SUBJECTS     571 


Loose  sentence,  208-210. 
U)tfi,  284. 
Love,  285. 

M 

Mad,  284. 

Main  division,  122;  defined  as 
section,  98;  transition  from 
one  to  another,  118-120. 

Manuscript,  4-5. 

Mention,  299. 

Metaphor,  363-364;  mixed,  367. 

Metonymy,  364. 

Middling,  268. 

Mighty,  284. 

Modifiers,  position  of,  202. 

Mood  relations,  539. 

Myself,  284,  285. 

N 

Narration,  372-411;  historical, 
372-411 ;  fictitious,  411 ;  gen- 
eralized, 409-411. 

National  usage,  288, 

Nearby,  284. 

Necessities,  necessaries,  302. 

Neoterisms,  290-294. 

Nice,  285. 

Nohow,  271. 

Norman,  the  —  element  in  Eng- 
lish, 256. 

Norse,  the  —  element  in  Eng- 
lish, 255-256. 

Nothing  like,  268. 

Number,  quantity,  303. 


Observation,  observance,  302. 

Obsolete  words,  289. 

Odd,  301. 

Off  of,  271. 

Old,  328. 

On,  blame,  271 ;  have  — ,  284. 

On  dit,  275. 

Onto,  293. 


Oral  usage,  230-231. 

Order,  of  topics  in  the  outline, 
51-69;  of  sentences  in  the 
paragraph,  155-163 ;  of  words 
in  the  sentence,  201-222. 

Originality,  11-13. 

Outline,  growth  of  the,  18-39; 
unity  of  thought  in,  39-51; 
order  of  topics  in,  51-69. 


Pan  out,  274. 

Pants,  271. 

Paragraph,  defined,  98;  unity 
of  thought  in  the,  98-121; 
transitional  --,  118-120; 
length,  121-140 ;  vs.  long  sen- 
tence, 140-144 ;  proportion  of 
parts  in  the,  144-146;  junc- 
tion of  with  other  paragraphs, 
146-155  ;  order  of  sentences  in 
the,  155-163  ;  unity  of  form 
(parallel  structure)  in  the, 
163-166;  of  one  sentence, 
122-127, 140-144, 181 ;  *'  echo," 
148-149;  "History  of  the 
English,"  122. 

Parallel  structure,  163-166. 

Parentheses,  546. 

Participles,  reference  of,  251. 

Parts,  proportion  of  in  the 
theme,  81-97;  in  the  para- 
graph, 144-146. 

Party,  274. 

Pell-mell,  302. 

People,  302. 

Period,  189,  193-194,  540. 

Periodic  sentence,  210--221. 

Person,  302. 

Personification,  364. 

Peruse,  280. 

Thone,  284. 

Photo.,  274. 

Phrases,  punctuated  as  sen- 
tences, 193-194. 


572     INDEX  OF  BUETORICAL   SUBJECTS 


Plenty,  271. 

Pleonasm,  239,  243-245,  270. 

Point  of  view,  102,  424-425,  436. 

Posted,  274. 

Preceding,  301. 

Precision,  297-307. 

Predominant,  302. 

Prepositions,  ellipsis  of,  229- 
230. 

Prescribe,  302. 

Present,  usage,  289;  historical 
— ,  377-379. 

Prolixity,  240. 

Prominent,  302. 

Pronouns,  reference  of,  248- 
251,  passim. 

Proportion  of  parts  in  the 
theme,  81-97;  in  the  para- 
graph, 144-146. 

Propose,  302. 

Proscribe,  302. 

Proverbs,  English,  332,  335. 

Public,  the  writer  and  his.  Il- 
ls. 

Punctuation,  7,  178-179,  184, 
193-194,  640-548. 

Puns,  21. 

Purist,  defined,  303. 

Purpose,  302. 

Put  up  with,  285. 

Puts  on,  284. 

Q 

Quantity,  303. 
Quite,  284. 
Quite  some,  268. 
Quotation  marks,  547. 

R 

Radical  figures,  361. 
Raise,  268. 

Range,  of  words,  see  Vocabu- 
lary. 
Reference,  248-251 
Regimen,  5^)6-537. 


Remark,  302. 

Renaissance,  influence  of  on 
English,  257. 

Rendition,  275. 

Repetition,  principle  of  para- 
graph development,  113-116 ; 
of  words,  316-319. 

Replace,  303. 

Reporter,  the,  69-70. 

Reputable  writers,  287-288. 

Reputation,  299. 

Residence,  274. 

Retire,  280. 

'*  Reverend  Jones,"  273. 

Review  questions,  8-10. 

Rhythm,  203-204. 

Right  there,  for  just  there,  284. 

S 

Sales-lady,  274. 

Says  I,  268. 

Scale  of  treatment,  69-81. 

Section,  defined,  98 ;  transition 
from  one  to  another,  118- 
120. 

Semicolon,  189-193,  540-541. 

Sentences,    order    of,    in    the 
paragraph,     155-163 ;     topic 
— ,    147-148,     151,     153-155 
length  of,   140-144,  183-194 
unity  of  thought  in,  167-198 
junction  of,  198-201 ;  order  of 
words  in,  201-222;   unity  of 
form  in,  223-229;   ellipsis  in, 
229-238;    wordiness  in,  239- 
247 ;  loose  and  periodic,  208- 
221. 

Sets,  284. 

Settle,  284. 

Shall  and  will,  537-539. 

Shan't,  279. 

Sideways,  for  side  wise,  284. 

Sight,  a,  268. 

Silk  hat,  for  hat  (or  high  hat). 
274. 


INDEX  OF  BHETORICAL   SUBJECTS     573 


Simile,  363. 

Simplicity,  328-329,  354-359. 

Slang,  275-279. 

Smart,  268. 

Society,  value  of  composition 

in,  1-2. 
Some,  284,  285. 
Somewhere  around,  272. 
Space,    association    in,    25-28, 

54-55,  101-102,  171-173. 
Spanish,    words    in    English, 

257.     . 
Speciality,  specialty,  303. 
Specie,  species,  303. 
Specific    and    general    words, 

345-350. 
Spelling,  5-7,  548-566. 
Standpoint,  293. 
Stay  put,  285. 
Stick  at  nothing,  310. 
Stock,  take  —  in,  274. 
Stop,  285. 
Study  for,  271. 
Stylish,  285. 
Subordination,  of  paragraphs, 

150-151 ;    of   sentences,   169- 

170,  175-176,  194-197. 
Subtopics    of    main    division, 

how  paragraphed,  128-138. 
Success,  a,  284. 
Summary,  62-69,  72-75. 
Sure,  271. 
Suspense,  in  the  sentence,  208- 

221,   passim;    in   narrative, 

376,  377,  379. 
Suspicioned,  271. 
Suzerain,  3. 
Syllogistic  unity,  107. 
Synecdoche,  362-363. 
Synonyms,  316-317,  335-345. 


Take  on,  283. 

Taste,    bad,   269-279,    354-359, 
passim. 


Tasteful,  293. 

Tasty,  274. 

Tautology,  239-240,  241-242, 
245-246. 

Technical  usage,  286-287. 

Temerarious,  324. 

Tense  relations,  537-539. 

Terms,  definition  of  rhetorical, 
16-17. 

Theme,  defined,  16;  proportion 
of  parts  in,  81-97.  See  also 
under  Manuscript,  Outline, 
Scale  of  treatment.  Propor- 
tion of  parts.  Description, 
Narration,  Exposition,  Argu- 
ment. 

Thick,  328. 

Thin,  329. 

Time,  association  in,  23-25, 
53-54,  99-101,  167-170. 

Titles,  42,  47. 

To,  271. 

Tone,  294-297. 

Took  sick,  271. 

Topics,  order  of,  in  the  outline, 
51-69;  sub  — ,  see  Paragraph, 
unity  in  the ;  —  sentence, 
147-148,  151,  153-155. 

Transitional,  paragraph,  118- 
120;  sentence,  147-148. 

Translation,  330-331. 

Translation  English,  312. 

Transpire,  for  happen,  273. 

Tropes,  359-371. 

Try  and  help,  310. 

U 

Unbeknown,  268. 

Uncanny,  281. 

Underhanded,  271. 

Unique,  303. 

Unity,  of  thought  in  the  out- 
line, 39-51 ;  of  thought  in  the 
paragraph,  98-121;  of  form 
in  the  paragraph,  163-166 ;  of 


574     INDEX  OF  RHETORICAL   SUBJECTS 


thought  in  the  sentence,  167- 
198 ;  of  form  in  the  sentence, 
223-229. 

Up  to  date,  285. 

Usage,  good,  defined,  16,  287- 
290;   local,  266-269;   vulgar, 

Cj.7,  240,  26^-279;  technical, 
286-287 ;  colloquial,  16-17, 
230-231,  240,  279-285;  liter- 
ary, 287-290. 

Use,  for  eat,  269. 


Vagueness,  defined,  306;  pro- 
duced by  collocation,  202- 
203;  in  choice  of  words,  323; 
artistic  — ,  351-352. 

Value  of  composition,  1-3. 

Values,  stylistic,  of  words, 
345-359. 

Variety,  of  form,  in  the  para- 
graph and  the  sentence,  163- 
166. 

Venal,  venial,  304. 

Vest,  for  waistcoat,  285. 

View-point,  293. 

Vocabulary,  the  English,  252- 
266 ;  acquisition  of,  319-345. 

Vocation,  299. 

Vulgar  usage,  240,  269-279. 

W 

Want  in,  etc.,  268. 
Wants  to  be,  271. 
Way,  the,  272 ;  ways,  a,  285. 
Weaken,  285. 


Weird,  281. 

Went  to,  271. 

Wharf,  301. 

What,  but,  271. 

Whether  or  no,  310. 

Wholesome,  301. 

Will,  shall  and,  537-539. 

Without,  285, 

Wordiness,  239-247. 

'*  Woronin's  hypha,"  287. 

Words,  war  over,  3;  like  mes- 
sengers, 13;  order  of,  in  the 
sentence,  201-222 ;  ellipsis  of, 
in  the  sentence,  229-238;  too 
few,  229-238  ;  too  many,  239- 
247;  English,  252-266;  local, 
266-269 ;  vulgar,  269-279 ;  col- 
loquial, 279-285;  technical, 
286-287 ;  literary,  287-290 ; 
new  (neoterisms) ,  290-294 ; 
tone  in,  294-297;  precision 
in  choice  of,  297-307;  "logi- 
cal conformity  "  in  choice  of, 
307-309;  idiom  in,  309-316; 
repetition  of,  316-319;  new, 
acquisition  of,  319-345 ;  values 
of,  345-359;  figurative,  359- 
371. 

Worst  kind,  271. 

Wouldn't  wish  for,  268. 

Writer,  and  his  public,  11-15. 

Writing,  an  education,  2-3. 


Xmas,  274. 


INDEX   OF  AUTHORS  QUOTED  AND 
PERSONS   MENTIONED 


Addison,  Joseph,  65. 

Alcibiades,  475. 

Alden,    Raymond    Macdonald, 

524. 
Alford,  Henry,  542. 
Allen,    James    Lane,    241-242, 

368,  457-458. 
Angell,  James  B.,  94-96. 
Aristotle,  14,  527. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  149,  207,  288. 

B 

Bainton,  George,  354. 
Baker,  George  Pierce,  372. 
Baldwin,  Charles  Sears,  372. 
Balzac,  Honore  de,  64-65. 
Bancroft,  George,  300. 
Barrie,  James  M.,  519. 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  368. 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  291. 
Besant,   Sir  Walter,   406,  477, 

480. 
Bible,  213, 298-299,  325, 331-332. 
Blackmore,    Richard    D.,    174, 

178,  188,   265,   266,  369,  464, 

478,  505. 
Bolles,  Frank,  103-104, 108, 117, 

118, 134-135, 183-184, 185, 215, 

220-221,  368,  393-394,  424-425, 

435,  446,   454,  455,  462,  467, 

467-4(58. 
Boswell,  James,  300,  302. 
Bourget,  Paul,  446,  458. 
Bradford,  Gamaliel,  Jr.,  500. 
Brewster,  William  Tenney,  372. 


Brookings,  W.  Du  Bois,  524. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  43-44,  119, 
120,  516-517. 

Brown,  Irene  Fowler,  487-488. 

Brown,  Mary  Willcox,  162-163. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  349, 
405. 

Buck,  Gertrude,  and  Wood- 
bridge,  Elisabeth,  26-27. 

Buck,  Gertrude,  524. 

Bunyan,  John,  331,  365. 

Burke,  Edmund,  120,  149. 

Burroughs,  John,  108-109,  198- 
199,  388-391,  444,  449. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  369. 


Calhoun,  John  Caldwell,  513- 

514. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  253,  368. 
Carpenter,   George    Rice,    331, 

350,  515-516. 
Cato,  527. 
Century  Magazine,   The,  220, 

319. 
Channing,  William  Henry,  217- 

218. 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  256,  257. 
Chevrillon,  Andre',  427. 
Choate,  Rufus,  331. 
Churchill,   Winston,    194,   369, 

476,  477. 
Clouston,  T.  S.,  184. 
Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  405. 
Cook,  Albert  Sidney,  332. 
Crane,  Walter,  427-428. 


575 


576 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS   QUOTED 


Crawford,  Francis  Marion,  215, 
417-418,  425,  430,  459,  480-481, 
495-496. 

Curtis,  George  William,  158, 
177-178,  186,  503. 


Dana,  Richard  Henry,  102, 160- 
161,  372-373,  373-374,  433-434, 
437-438,  438, 468-469,  472-473, 
488-489. 

Dante,  116. 

Dantec,  F.  le,  494-495. 

Darwin,  Charles,  62. 

D'Amicis,  Edmondo,  215-216. 

Davis,  Richard  Harding,  369, 
391-392,  461,  462. 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  41. 

De  Stael,  Madame,  215,  327. 

Dickens,  Charles,  101,  215,  431- 
432. 

Dow,  Gerard,  71. 

Drummond,  Henry,  216-217, 
217. 

E 

Easton,  E.  E.,  438. 
Ebers,  Georg,  426. 
Edwards,  Amelia  B.,  171-172, 

463-464. 
Eliot,  Charles  W.,  219. 
"Eliot,  George,"  see  "George 

Eliot." 
Emerson,    Ralph    Waldo,   298, 

321-322,  349,  351,  357,  369,  505. 
Everett,  Edward,  489. 


Fallows,  Samuel,  337. 
Fernald,  James  C,  337. 
Fiske,  John,  223,  288. 
Fitzgerald,  Edward,  515-516. 
Fletcher,  J.  B.,  515-516. 
Ford,  Paul  Leicester,  194,  382- 
384,  484-485. 


Fowler,     Ellen    Thorneycroft, 

108,  432-433,  486,  498. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  21. 


Gardiner,  J.  H.,  372,  519. 
Garland,  Hamlin,  434,  450,  470, 

486-487. 
Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  184. 
Gautier,   Theophile,   419,  426- 

427. 
Geikie,  Sir  Archibald,  472. 
Geikie,  Cunningham,  298. 
Genung,  John  Y.,  214. 
"George  Eliot,"  354,459. 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  327. 
Grant,  Frederick  D.,  158-159. 
Green,  John  Richard,  288,  478. 

H 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  91-94. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  Jr.,  351. 

Hall,  Fitzedward,  291,  292. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  385-388. 

Hamerton,  Philip  Gilbert,  119, 
413-414,  423-424,  456. 

Hart,  James  Morgan,  148. 

Harte,  Rollin  Lynde,  164-165. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  190,288, 
349,  392-393,  414-415,  421,  430, 
442, 444-445, 445, 447,449,  452- 
453, 453,  454-455,  462-463, 470- 
471,  482,  501. 

Hazlitt,  William  Carew,  333. 

Hebrews,  298-299. 

Hewett,  W.  T.  S.,  503-504. 

"H.  H.,"  185-186,  418,  430,  436, 
436-437, 438-439,  440-441 ,  441- 
442,  462,  465,  465-466,  466. 

Higginson,  Thomas  Wentworth, 
288. 

Hill,  Adams  Sherman,  325,  331. 

Holden,  Edward  S.,  324. 

Hole,  S.  Reynolds,  453. 

Holland,  Josiah  Gilbert,  298. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS   QUOTED 


577 


Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  3,  10, 
103,  109,  188,  189,  190,  192- 
193,  216,  217,  218-219,  272, 
356-357,  460,  469-470,  470, 
473,  498,  501-502. 

Hooker,  Richard,  121-122. 

Howard,  Oliver  O.,  113-114. 

Howells,  William  Dean,  327, 
426,  450-151,  456-457,  509-511. 

Hudson,  William  Henry,  87-88, 
109-110,  119,  506,  507-508. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  34-35. 

Hugo,  Victor,  124,  420-421. 

Huxley,  Thomas  Henry,  29,  34- 
35,  66-69,  83-86,  114-115,  119, 
120, 161-162,  213-214,  506-507. 

Hyde,  William  De  Witt,  195- 
196. 

Hyslop,  James  H.,  135-136. 


lies,  George,  30,  65-66,  104, 190. 
Irving,  Washington,  327. 


Jackson,  Helen  Hunt.  See 
*'H.  H." 

James,  Henry,  280-281, 322, 354, 
419-420,  420,  421,  430,  431, 
445,  446-447,  466,  473. 

James,  William,  41. 

Jewett,  Sarah  Orne,  425,  431, 
435,  450,  451,  458,  479. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  265,  266,  290. 

Johnson's  Encyclopaedia,  434. 

Jordan,  David  Starr,  151. 

Joubert,  Joseph,  189,  358,  369. 

Jowett,  Benjamin,  75-81,  198. 


Keats,  John,  351. 

Keller,  Helen,  319-320. 

Kelly,    Florence,    33,    105-106, 

178,  233-234. 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  193,  286. 
2p 


La  Farge,  John,  448. 
La  Fleur,  Paul,  495. 
Lamb,  Charles,  331. 
Lamont,  Hammond,  372. 
Landor,  A.  H.  Savage,  375-376. 
Landor,  Walter  Savage,  288. 
Lanier,  Sidney,  212. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  87,  89,  289, 

332,  348,  512. 
Locke,  John,  298. 
Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth, 

303. 
Loti,  Pierre,  415,  419. 

M 
Mabie,  Hamilton  Wright,  174- 

175,  178,  192,  219,  502,  507. 
Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington, 

62-63,  111-113,  213. 
Mandeville,  Sir  John,  209-210. 
Harden,  Oliver  Swett,  407. 
Marshall,  John,  409-410. 
Matthews,  William,  285. 
McCarthy,  Justin  H.,  124-1*26. 
*'  Meredith,  Owen,"  see  "  Owen 

Meredith." 
Meynell,  Alice,  499-500. 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  109-110. 
More,  Phil,  377-378. 
Morley,  John,  478-479,  482,  505. 
Morrison,  Arthur,  416,  425-426, 

430-431,  458. 
Morse,  Samuel  F.  B.,  a5,  291. 
Morton,  Henry,  220. 
Muir,  John,  466-467. 
Munger,    Theodore    Thornton, 

176, 187,  369-370,  501, 502,  505, 

520,  520-521. 

N 
Nansen,  Fridtjof,  401. 
Newcomb,  Simon,  217,  494. 
Newcomer,   Alphonso  G.,   124, 
307,  537,  546. 


578 


INDEX   OF  AUrnORS   QUOTED 


Newman,  John  Henry,  207,  214. 
Newton,  Isaac,  21. 

O 

O^den,  Ellery,  145-146. 
Outlook,  The,  115-116,  401-402, 

404. 
"  Owen  Meredith,"  60. 


Parkman,  Francis,  288,  405. 
Peary,  Robert  F.,  491^93. 
Peck,    Harry    Thurston,    277- 

279,  280-283,  537. 
Phelps,  Elizabeth  Stuart,  298. 
Philippians,  213. 
Plutarch,  20. 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  73-75,  405. 
Potter,    Henry    Codman,    159, 

407-408. 
Puttenham,  George,  290. 

R 

Reade,  Charles,  356. 
Richmond,  Mary  E.,  188,  191, 

491,  502-503. 
Richter,  Jean  Paul,  2. 
Ring,  W.  Nephew,  374-375,  394- 

395. 
Ringwalt,  Ralph  Curtis,  524. 
Roche,  Sir  Boyle,  367. 
Roget,  Peter,  337. 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,   62,   128- 

129. 
Ruhl,  Arthur,  380-382. 
Ruskin,  John,  32,  105,  207,  216, 

303-304,    332,    352,    352-353, 

405,  406,  420,  438,  460. 

S 
Sargent,  Dudley,  218. 
Scott,  Fred  Newton,  and  Den- 

ney,  Joseph  Villiers,  41. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  455-456. 
Scud  ler,  Samuel  H.,  508-509. 


Seton-Tho'Vnpson,  Ernest,  177. 
Shakspere,    William,   24,    243, 

299,  312,   320,  321,   325,   328, 

329,  331,  366,  368. 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  298. 
Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley,  321. 
Sherwood,  Margaret,    152-153, 

394,  453,  477. 
Smith,  F.  Hoptinson,  480. 
Spencer,   Herbert,   87-88,  109- 

110. 
Spenser,  Edmund,  298. 
Stevenson,    Robert  Louis,   63, 

288,  350. 
Stockton,  Frank  R.,  457. 
Swift,  Jonathan,  299. 


Taine,  Hippolyte,  171,  189,  415- 
416,  434,  436,  446,  449. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  282,  365. 

Thackeray,  William  Make- 
peace, 323,  424,  457,  482,  482- 
483. 

Thomson,  Frank,  404. 

Thoreau,  Henry  D.,  132-134, 
173, 186-187, 191,  428-429,  446, 
463. 

Thorwaldsen,  Bertel,  407. 

Tomlinson,  Everett  Titsworth, 
397-399. 

Trollope,  Anthony,  269. 

Tyndall,  John,  493. 


Van  Dyke,  John  C,  444,  453- 
454,  465,  471, 471-472, 493-494. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  410-411. 

Van  Helmont,  Jan  Baptista, 
290. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Mrs.  Schuyler, 
447,  451,  451-452. 

Variiey,  George  J.,  490-491. 

Virgil,  416. 


INDEX   OF  AUTHORS   QUOTED 


579 


w 

Wallace,  Henry,  104-105,   106, 

110-111, 136-137, 159-160, 160. 
Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  435- 

436. 
Webster,  Daniel,  213,  513-514. 
Wellman,  Walter,  89-91. 
West,  Benjamin,  35. 
Wheeler,   Benjamin   Ide,   141- 

143. 
Whipple,    Edwin    Percy,    174, 

192,  475-476,  506. 
Whitney,  Caspar,  106-107,  396- 

397. 


Wordsworth,  William,  351-352, 

368. 
Wyckoff,   Walter   S.,   378-379, 

409,    416-417,    439-440,    454, 

459,    459-460,    460-461,     477, 

483-844,   498-499. 


Youmans,  Edward  Livingston, 

298. 
Youth's  Companion,  The,  129- 

130, 130-132, 403,  407, 409-410, 

475,  496-497. 


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and  constitute  a  review  of  the  principles  of  sentence-structure,  punctu- 
ation, diction,  and  the  preparation  of  manuscript.  Having  revised 
with  a  new  consciousness  that  revision  is  important,  the  student 
hands  in  his  paper.  Later  he  receives  it  back  for  further  revision, 
with  check  marks  that  indicate  on  each  page  the  questions  neglected 
on  that  page.  Thus  the  student's  powers  of  observation  are  sharp- 
ened,  and  he  is  rendered  ifidependent,  whereas  direct  pointing  out  of 
faults  leaves  "him  helpless  to  a  degree  that  only  the  teacher  of  Eng- 
lish can  understand.  Thus  also  the  teacher's  labor  is  lessened  one- 
half  the  fruitless  part  of  it  being  done  away  with. 


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